For What It's Worth
by CainyG88
Summary: Being a super villain and a dad to 3 rambunctious and intelligent orphans was never going to be easy for Gru. Trials and tribulations await them. But little could prepare Gru or his new daughters for the moment their past catches up with them.
1. Introduction and Prologue

**Disclaimer: This story and all of its chapters are written by me, intended for fun only and may not be sold or used for profit making purposes by anyone. I do not own any of the characters, locations or events mentioned within this story that relate to the Universal Pictures Ltd film Despicable Me. I do however respectfully ask people not to plagiarise any original characters or events I have written myself, as i worked hard on them. **

**now thats out of the way... on with the show!**

**Introduction: Hi everyone! This is my first (and certainly not last) fanfic. I really liked the film Despicable Me, and after reading some fantastic fanfics on here I was inspired to write my own**.

Prologue

"And now he knows he could never part, those 3 little kittens

They changed his heart..."

Those few words would stick with Gru for the rest of his life. He had finished reading his 3 girls a bedtime story that he wrote himself and those were its last words. It was a small summary of the vents that preceded that evening. He adopted 3 innocent little girls to help him in his plot to steal the moon, and intended to use them as tools to further his goal and give them back. Why did he adopt them? Well, Gru needed a shrink ray to use on the moon to shrink it, so he could take it down to Earth and bargain with world leaders for money, and more importantly for Gru it would make him infamous. He stole the shrink ray from its lab somewhere in East Asia, but a rival villain named Vector then ironically stole it from _him_. if Gru did not secure the shrink ray, he would not be able to receive a bank loan to build a rocket that could take him to the moon.

The girls, Gru would witness, had no trouble entering his fortress as they sold cookies as part of their orphanage chores, so he created a plan to use them as a distraction and allow him to infiltrate some cookie disguised robots inside one of the boxes.

Thus, he adopted them assuming everything would go smoothly and he'd be able to give them back as soon as the plan had been executed. He adopted Margo, an 11 year old with a smart mind and a sassy attitude, her sister Edith who wore a pink hat and was sarcastic and immature but also curious and with a good sense of humour and was 8 years old, and her little sister Agnes. Agnes was 5 and had an unhealthy obsession with Unicorns and was adorable and innocent, but this grated on Gru massively. Little did Gru know, the girls, especially Margo, had immense strength of will and Gru's inexperience with children made it a struggle to get them to do what he wanted. He found himself in an awkward position, and had to give in to their childish demands and acts and to suffer through it for the time being. All 3 of them did Ballet which further added to Grus torment as he was forced to accompany them to class.

Eventually, he managed to steal the shrink ray back from Vector.

The events after led to Gru to gradually fall in love with the girls as daughters and they saw him as a true father, and Gru realised they meant more to him than anything else ever did, and ever would. He became a good father figure, looking out for them, cooking them food, playing games with them, and reading them bedtime stories and even had tea parties with them. Gru still had trouble overcoming emotional barriers he had when it came to the girls, though. He was neglected by his mother as a child and found it difficult to open up to the girls and also do things with them his mother never did. Gru was slowly overcoming this though and began to see life in a different light and was more open minded to doing things with the girls. When Gru was denied a bank loan despite having the shrink ray, the girls inspired Gru to build a rocket himself by scavenging materials from his lab. However, Gru began to feel a little disconnected with his villainous scheme because of his continued interactions with the girls, and Gru began to understand his life was not just about being the best villain he could be. Nefario, Gru's right hand man, saw that they were a distraction when Gru attempted to change the launch date as it conflicted with a dance recital the girls were having and forced Gru to send them back behind his back. After stealing the moon and attempting to get to the dance recital on time, Gru discovered the girls had been kidnapped by Vector, who is the son of the banker who denied Gru his loan. He would gladly give up the moon he stole to rescue them from Vector, who kidnapped them as a bargaining tool in order to secure the moon for himself, and all the glory that came with it. Gru discovered the miniature moon would eventually return to full size, and his girls were in grave danger. After a struggle and nearly falling to his death, Gru rescued the girls and sent the moon back into orbit in the nick of time.

Gru then settled down to begin his life as a father, and the girls finally had the home and the love that they had wanted all their lives.

The new life that Gru had made for himself afterwards would take him to interesting places, and events would shape him and his girls. Fatherhood was not going to be easy, Gru knew. Margo, being 11 years old, very close to her teens and Gru was aware that teenage girls can be extremely tough to deal with. All hormonal and such. She was very mature though, and she did her best to help Gru out when she could, which Gru was grateful for. Edith could be a bitter child when she was not cheerful; obviously the events of her past had affected her in ways Gru tried hard, but failed, to understand. Agnes was the most impressionable though, she was young enough and innocent enough to be unaffected so Gru had an easier time with her.

Dealing with the emotional needs of 3 children would be a roller coaster ride for Gru. He had a natural paternal instinct, but he was still somewhat socially inept after spending most of his life dedicated to villainy. He did his best, which was oten enough for the girls. But not always. All 4 of them had their pasts...

Would they become a close knit family like the neighbours Gru had always eyed with envy? Or would the rigours of villainy drive a wedge between them, and alienate them?

Life was going to be interesting and eventful for Gru and the girls.

Perhaps more than they realise…

Welcome to the world of Despicable Me.

**Authors notes:**

**I hope you liked my summary of the story and also hope it gives you an idea of what kind of story you can expect from me. Its a drama primarily, but it will have a lot of nice moments too. Reviews are appreciated.**

**I am new to the site so I'm getting used to how the layouts work, so if things look a bit 'simple' bear with me as I establish a system of my own for notes and comment replied etc.**

**Enjoy the next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 1: Agnes's First Day

**Hi everyone, this is the first chapter. I have a rough story laid out with a few key events including the ending jotted down, and the links between them. I have 2 chapters written fully, I don't really know how long the story will be as although I have the basic story laid out, I don't know how I'm going to tie it all together. I want this story to be cute, funny, but also emotional. There's a lot of stuff thats going to happen in this story! If you like that sort of thing, bear with me! Some good stuff is coming. The first couple of chapters are going to be purely fluff to get you used to my writing style and also for me to stretch my legs so to speak. Then the story proper will start in earnest.**

Chapter 1

Agnes' First Day

It was a Monday morning…

Gru was sleeping, though not so deeply anymore, the sunlight had pierced the crack in the closed curtains and fell onto his eyes and it began to pull him out of the dream he was having. He squinted in his sleep, and mumbled as he started to come into wakefulness. He moved his legs and felt something heavy above his feet, and assumed it was Kyle. He kicked it and instead of hearing a yelp, Gru heard a little squeak and felt whatever it was move up his bed and near his pillow.

He groaned as he came into full consciousness and he opened his eyes finally. Agnes was sitting inches away from his face, and a huge grin spread across hers.

"Schooooooooool!" she shrieked in excitement. Gru jumped back startled and fell out of the bed in a heap on the floor, and a dim thud echoed in the sparsely decorated room.

"Schoool schoool schooooooool!" she shouted again, jumping around on his bed like a bunny rabbit that had taken way too much… something.

"Agnes…" Gru yawned irritably as he dragged himself off of the floor. "Weel you stop shouting."

She jarred to a halt, and a cute "Sorry" smile spread in her face. Gru looked at the clock next to his bed. It had small swords for hands and helmet shapes for bells, and looked befitting in a room such as this. Especially when his beds head rest had spikes in it.

"Ugh… its 6.30 Agnes. We don't have to leeve till 8.30." Gru sighed.

"I know daddy, I'm just so excited." She jittered with a huge smile. Her body was quivering, as if she would explode if she didn't contain her elation.

"How long have yoo been sitting there?" Gru asked her from the floor.

"Um… I don't know. It was still dark out though." Gru looked at her with exasperation and yawned. He rubbed his left eye, he had hit it involuntarily with his hand as he tumbled out of bed and it was hurting a small amount.

Gru hadn't the energy for this, he had just woken up and was still half asleep. He needed coffee, badly. As though on queue, his door flew open and Edith came bounding into the room and leapt onto his bed.

"Yay! School for Agnes!" she shouted as she jumped around, the straps on her hat flapping around and hitting her in the face. And Agnes joined in, too. Now that both children were leaping around, Grus ordeal doubled in its terribleness and he sunk to the floor in despair. He hit his head repeatedly on the wooden floorboards, hoping the repeated impacts would either wake him up from this nightmare or perhaps get the girls to shut up. Neither happened.

"Please… just stop cheeldren." he groaned. He doubted they could hear him, they were screaming too loud. Edith was doing it on purpose clearly, she loved to wind people up. Her little smirk was proof enough to Gru.

"I want breakfast." Edith blurted out mid jump.

"Een a meenet." Gru sighed as he pulled himself up off the floor a second time. 'Now, stop jumpeeng on de bed or I will make you both walk to school.'

His gambit had worked, the screaming jumping excited racket was replaced with a sulking Edith and a coy Agnes. He threw on his dressing gown on autopilot. He eyed himself in the mirror and saw Edith pulling a face at him from behind.

"Mirrors are reflective, Edith." Gru said casually. "I can see you."

She stopped almost instantly with lightning quick reflexes and just looked at him with a "what?" face. He poked his tongue out at her and she giggled a little.

He shuffled out of the room, which gave Edith and Agnes the opportunity to start jumping again. He growled a little as he heard his bed creaking and the girls giggling, but gave up trying to tell them to stop. Gru wandered downstairs zombie like and found Margo in the kitchen, fixing him a cup of coffee. His dressing gown was half open and loosely tied together, and he looked positively dreadful. 'The dead do walk', Margo though to herself and giggled, and giggled some more when Gru raised his eyebrow at her questioningly at her laughing. She pointed at his boxer shorts, stifling a laugh. His favourite boxers were unlike anything a villain would be seen in. They had teddy bears on them, and he glanced down and noticed they were on show. He quickly tied up his dressing gown and blushed a little. Margo tip toed carefully over to Gru so as not to spill anything, and handed him the coffee.

"Here you go Mr Gru." She said as she handed it to him. "Enjoy."

Gru's heavily bagged eyes regarded at the coffee suspiciously for a moment. He thoroughly expected to see thick tarry liquid sitting in the mug, but was pleasantly surprised to see a perfectly normal looking cup of coffee. He sipped, and his spirits lifted a little. It wasn't bad.

"Thank you." He replied as he slurped. The warm black liquid soothed his tired body, and he slowly came out of a his just woken up stupor and his pound head began to relax.

His relaxation was short lived, however, as the telltale sound of Edith hurtling down the stairs at breakneck speed signalled breakfast time. Margo giggled as she looked at his scowl. It had been like this for the month since he rescued them. He didn't mind, really, but he was NOT a morning person. Villains were nocturnal creatures. Children on the other hand… were always full of energy, no matter what the time was. Agnes followed behind Edith shortly after, sweetly trotting to the breakfast table.

"Edith… calm down." Margo ordered with a small frown as her sister bounced on her seat.

"What?" she frowned at Margo "I'm just sitting at the table, sheesh. I mean wh-"

"OK keeds, pancakes or scrambled eggs." Gru spoke loudly over her, while at the stove. Edith flopped down on the chair in a little hissy fit. She hated being interrupted.

"Scrambled eggs!" Agnes shouted at a volume and pitch that made Gru's ears ring, and he grimaced.

"I want pancakes." Edith retorted sulkily.

"You can onlee have one or de other." Gru said.

"I'm not eating scrambled eggs." she said with her arms folded.

"Margo hasn't chosen what she wants. Majority decides." Gru smirked and Edith pouted in annoyance.

"Uhh… I guess I'd like scrambled eggs, thank you." She answered politely. At least one of them was mature, Gru thought to himself.

"But I don't want-" Edith began and Margo shot her a look.

"Aww, I am so _sorry_ Edith. I've already started cookeeng eggs in de pan." Gru smiled to himself in a small victory of wits. His sorry sounded overly sarcastic, and he meant it to.

"Use another one for my pancakes then." She answered back, defiant as always.

"No." Gru said plainly.

"But-"

"Eet ees final, Edith. You either eet de eggs dat are scrambled, or you do not eat at all.' Gru eyed her and left it at that. She backed down, and reserved herself to a sullen silence for the rest of breakfast.

xxxxx

Getting the girls ready for school was a bit easier now Gru's caffeine fix had kicked in. Gru got dressed and made is way to the girls room to see if they were ready. Edith was still sulking but thankfully dressed for school, so he tickled her and she cheered up for a few minutes while Margo helped Agnes get ready. Gru looked at Agnes in her uniform with a mixture of pride and worry. She had been with him for the last 2 months while Edith and Margo went to school, he had her around him all day. He had always kept his eye on her, always played games if she got bored, and generally gotten used to having her around. He worried about what would happen to her at school. Would she be OK? Would the other children be nice to her? He shook his head, this isn't what a villain does. A villain is decisive and quick thinking, and brave. They didn't fret. But, he still had pangs in his stomach.

"Wow, looking good Agnes" Margo said with a big grin.

"Ya, I look cute in my uniform." Agnes said as she looked at herself in the mirror. She turned around and saw the looks of wry amusement on Gru and her sister's faces. Edith was shaking her head a little.

"What?" she said in embarrassment. "Don't I?"

"Eets time to get you to school. Go brush yoor teeth gorls, I'll be waiting downstairs."

He made his way downstairs and he could hear Edith and Agnes arguing over who's toothbrush belonged to whom. He banged on the ceiling where he was waiting, which happened to be directly underneath the bathroom.

"Edith, your toothbrush ees peenk, Agnes yours ees yellow. Now hurry up!" he shouted.

The bickering ended.

xxxxx

Margo helped Agnes jump down from the toilet. She had to stand on it to reach the sink, as Edith always hogged the steps Gru made for them. Margo cleaned the water splashes off her glasses and smiled at her sisters.

"Ready Agnes?" Margo asked.

"Yeah!" she replied in a flurry of giddiness.

"Shotgun!" Edith shouted as she ran out of the bathroom and towards the top of stairs.

Margo turned to her sister and smiled. Agnes hopped a little with excitement and grabbed her gigantic unicorn toy that she 'won' at Super Silly Fun Land.

"Hey, you can't take fluffy toys to school Agnes." Margo said.

"But he'll be on his own and… and…" her bottom lip started to quiver and Margo's shoulders slumped.

"Agnes… it's school, not kindergarten."

"I never went to kindergarten remember." Agnes said dimly. Margo bit her bottom lip… it was a sensitive subject. Agnes missed out a lot on her younger years due to being at Miss Hatties.

Margo opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Edith.

"Hey guys, come quick!" she shouted from the hall. Margo and Agnes shared a look of curiosity and they quickly made it to the hallway. Agnes broke into a huge smile.

All of the minions, as well as Nefario (shockingly out of the lab), had gathered at the bottom of the stairs with a banner that said "Happy First School Day'. As she hoped down the stairs in elation, Gru popped some party streamers and the minions cheered. Nefario reserved to clap silently, though he was smiling a little.

"Oh thank you! This is the best day ever!" she squeaked, and gave every single minion and even Nefario, a big hug. "Eeeeek! I'm so excited!"

"Get in a group everyone." Gru said as he held up a camera. Agnes skipped. Gru set the camera down on the tripod he set up and quickly joined the group.

"Readee? Cheese!"

"Cheeeeese!" they all shouted as the camera flashed. It was going to be a wonderful photo. Gru couldn't wait to develop it as the group broke up and Nefario and some minions walked to the lab entrance.

Gru decided to himself he take it to a photo shop rather than develop it in his lair. He was interested to see how the photo would turn out and also, with a chuckle to himself, how the developing staff would react to seeing all of his yellow minions in the photograph.

"Time to go." He announced, checking his watch.

Agnes ran out of the door, followed by Edith shouting 'Hey!' scrambling to get to the tank car first as she had called shotgun. Margo smiled to herself, and to Gru, and she followed him to the car as the minions waved goodbye. A couple were crying like babies. Kids grow up so fast.

Xxxxx

The journey to school was loud as Agnes was overjoyed, but Gru didn't mind. He had been denied much of what the girls were doing for much of his childhood. He wasn't going to take it away from them. They had a right to be excited, especially Agnes. Margo was reading a book while Agnes was nattering away to her about all of her plans, while and Margo was giving her an occasional 'Mmhmm' or 'I see' just to humour her. Edith however, had gone very quiet. Gru was watching her from his rear view mirror. She seemed fine this morning, he though to himself.

"You okay Edith?" Gru asked, which prompted Margo to look up at her from her book.

"Yeah I'm fine." She said, staring aimlessly out the window.

"Edith…" Margo joined in. "You sure?"

"Yes, I am fine." She snapped aggressively.

"Okay… sorry." Margo said, quite taken aback.

Gru left Edith alone and focused on Agnes's school. He had to go with her for registration, so he dropped Margo and Edith off first. Edith seemed reluctant to get out of the car, and Gru gave her a little nudge and a thumbs up which she gingerly mirrored and shuffled off to school. Margo put her arm around Edith's shoulders and this seemed to perk her up a bit. Gru watched them walk away and wondered what had Edith so down. He was rudely snapped out of his ponderings by Agnes screaming in glee. He was brought back to reality and he huffed. This was it… Agnes's first day was upon him.

"Yay! My school next!" she wailed.

"Joy…" Gru muttered to himself quietly so Agnes didn't hear.

Gru secretly dreaded going to Agnes's school, though he did his best not to let it interfere with the atmosphere in the car. He hated loud, crowded places. An enrolment day at a 5 year olds school was going be positively manic.

He parked up, leaving the usual wreckage of cars beside his tank. He and Agnes hopped out, and Gru walked holding her hand to the reception. The butterflies in his stomach were going crazy. The doors opened and he stepped into the reception. The chit chat of parents and the sounds of children playing died down suddenly as people took notice of him. The mood suddenly became tense, and Gru was extremely self-conscious now. Agnes looked up at him innocently , and then smiled. She was finally at school!

The cold silence of the reception became a flurry of whispering and hushed voices, each one no doubt making comments about him. He was an imposing figure, he often admitted proudly. But it didn't stop him feeling self aware in this situation. He would be dealing with this every 4 weeks at parent teacher evening, at 2 separate occasions. He felt deflated. He reserved himself to a seat alone, while Agnes went to play with the other kids. The reception had become loud with chatter again, and Gru settled a little now the people had taken their eyes off of him. He watched her play for a few minutes, then felt the bench he was sitting at jolt. Someone sat down next to Gru, and he looked sideways at the.

"Hi!" a man said extending his hand in welcome. "I'm Joe. Your kids' first day of school too, right?"

The man looked about late 30's. He had cropped black hair, and his football shirt advertised him support of a team Gru had no interest in, and did not even know about. His hands were dry and clammy looking. He obviously did manual labour, something Gru abhorred.

Gru eyed his hand, then at the man again. Gru didn't offer his hand back. He refused to touch those hands… they looked ghastly.

"Umm… well, pleased to meet you friend. Which one is yours?" he asked while pulling his hand gingerly back to his body. His accent was a little Brooklynesque. Not quite thick but noticeable all the same.

"*sigh* The girl with black hair and ponee taeel wearing the stripy white and peenk teeshort" Gru replied indifferently. He didn't really want to humour this man by talking to him.

"Aww ain't she cute! The blonde girl she's playing with is my daughter Holly." he chuckled. 'They've made a friend already!"

Gru found himself smiling at this comment, but quickly pursed his lips as his vision flicked back to the annoying Joe who was picking his nose.

"You ain't from around here, are ya?" Gru frowned. The man was getting on his nerves. Gru rubbed his temples hoping it would relax the throbbing of his irritated mind "You sound like ya from Eastern Europe maybe, judging by the accent."

Gru did not reply. The man looked awkwardly around, trying to find some common ground again.

"So… whats your name?" the man asked again after another pause. "You don't talk a lot, that's fair enough. But at least tell me your name."

"You may call me Gru." Gru replied in a straightforward tone.

"Gru?" the man replied, puzzled, and then he smiled.

"Haha! That's… Gru-some. Hehe, geddit? Gru…some…" he stuttered as Gru gave him a dark look, and Joe looked down at his feet.

"Just Gru." Gru said, placing emphasis on the word just.

"Sure thing, Mr gru. Sorry. Just… you know. Breaking the ice is all." Joe said sheepishly.

"Oh, there certainly coold bee some ice that needs breakeeng." Gru said sarcastically while clutching the freeze ray underneath his jacket. He stopped himself; it would not do to freeze a parent on Agnes' first day. Perhaps Gru could another time outside of school, if the man was still insubordinate. He laughed inwardly at Joe's confused look.

"Hello everyone!" said a woman who entered the room, and the chatter died down. "I am Mrs Darlington, the head mistress. I would like to welcome parents and children alike to West Fields School! If the children would kindly go back to their parents so we can get the enrolment started, that would be peachy!"

Her voice was melodic and friendly. Gru sat there with his head rested on his palm. The head teacher looked like a skinnier version of Miss Hattie, with better dress sense and less bulbous hair, though it was similarly styled. She beamed at the new kids.

Agnes skipped back to him and Gru hurriedly tried to look engaged and … not bored, for her sake. The girl she was with, Holly, smiled at her as she climbed onto her dads lap and whispered in his ear. He leant over to Agnes.

"I hear your name is Agnes!" Joe said welcomingly. 'Nice to meet you.' He extended his hand and Agnes shook it shyly.

"Hi…" she said gingerly, clutching Grus arm.

"You are sooooo tall!" Gru heard a high pitched voice speaking to him, bringing him out of his daydream. He glanced down, into the big blue eyes of Holly. Her blonde hair was curly and her yellow t-shirt had flecks of dried food on it. Her jeans had holes in, and they looked too small for her. She was a scruffy child. Gru assessed her for a few seconds, and looked back at the head master who was talking.

"Yes. I am." He replied.

"Like, reeeeeally tall! Even taller than THIS!" she made a motion and held her arms out sideways. Her arms were barely longer than his outer thighs, he was at least 4 times taller than her outstretched arms were wide. Gru looked at her father smiling at her. If this was supposed to be cute, Gru was unimpressed. Agnes however, was infatuated.

"Right… now that's out of the way," the headmistress said, Gru huffed as he missed what she was saying with Holly's 'chat', "I will introduce the two First Grade teachers and we will begin assigning you excited children to your classes!"

"This is Miss Jones, she is the Bumble Bee classes' teacher." A long brown haired woman who was about 30 years old walked into the room and waved. She wore typical teachers clothes that were flowery, pastel coloured and welcoming. She was very pretty Gru found himself thinking. She surveyed the room from behind glasses not dissimilar to Margos.

"This is Mr Bates. He is the Hummingbird class teacher." A similarly aged man walked in. His blonde hair was styled into a short faux-hawk his smart casual dress style betrayed him as a businessman, not a teacher. Gru snorted amusedly at the sight.

"Hi classmates! Nice to meet you all." Mrs Jones and Mr Bates said in unison and waved. The kids waved back. Some waved shyly, others with confidence. Already Gru could see a pecking order forming.

"I wanna be in Miss Jones class." Agnes whispered excitedly as the teachers began calling out names. Gru patted her head, and decided she would be, if that's what she wanted. He could quite easily threaten the head mistress if she didn't agree.

"Mee toooo!' Holly replied. "We are gonna be best friends!"

Agnes' giddy fidgeting confirmed to Gru she had met her best friend for life. He smiled inwardly, despite his stoic looking facial expression. He was happy for Agnes, she had settled in nicely and school hadn't even started yet. But… Holly had Joe for a father. No doubt Gru would be expected to talk to him before and after school now their daughters were friends. Perhaps even at parent teacher meetings. This was not something Gru wanted to do.

'Well, its roll call time, bucko' Joe said to his daughter. "Time to zip it shut, kay?".

Holly nodded at him cheerfully.

The two teachers both held up pieces of paper as the headmaster excused herself from the proceeding, no doubt to get a cup off coffee or something equally unimportant. They began to call out names, and Gru felt Agnes' little suddenly hand clutch his tightly. He held it back, and patted one of her shoulders lovingly, as she glanced up and smiled. This was it…

Mr Bates had called 3 G lettered surnames so far, and Miss Jones hadn't called any. Agnes was nervously shivering, thinking that all G surnames would be in his class.

"Holly Degoran." Miss Jones announced, and Holly screeched with joy and her father cheered a little too. Gru snorted.

"Agnes…" Mr Bates started, and Agnes slumped in Gru's lap as he said her name, her grip on Grus hand loosened in defeat. "Smith."

Agnes jumped in relief and resumed her tight grip on Gru's, and he laughed a little. He then winced… as she tightened her grip more to shut him up.

"Ah looks like we have 2 Agnes's in 1st grade Mr Bates!" Miss Jones said, as she looked around. "Agnes Gru? Over here please."

She smiled as Agnes got up. Agnes mouthed "YES!" to Gru and shook her fist in the air in victory and she trotted over to join her new class. She sat down next to the unkempt Holly and they high fived.

Gru then felt a profound sense of longing. He would miss having her around, despite how much she irritated him while he tried to work. She had almost blown him up several times over the course of the last 2 months by distracting him while he was working with chemicals or a sensitive new weapon. He would miss that, it was such an endearing quality she had. He wondered if she'd end up like Margo, quiet and reserved, but with confident sassiness. Or, he shuddered, like Edith… obnoxious and tomboyish. One Edith was plenty enough for him.

"OK everyone, that's it! Roll call has finished, and the classes assigned." said Mr Bates. "Parents, you will be invited to view the classrooms next week on Monday evening and also to fill in some forms to finalise placement, and to discuss anything with your child's teacher, if you feel you need to."

Gru sighed. He had to come to the school without the girls, to talk to her teacher, and no doubt have to talk to Joe...

"Oh well," he thought as he fumbled for his keys, 'All part of the school life I guess.'

Gru waved goodbye to Agnes, and walked over to his car quickly. Hoping to avoid Joe. Unfortunately… he didn't.

"Hey, buddy!" he heard him shout from behind him. Gru shuddered and attempted to get into his car quickly and pretend he didn't hear him. Gru fumbled for his keys and pulled them out of his pocket, rushing to unlock the tank door. As he found the right key, he dropped them. His plan had failed miserably, and he gritted his teeth as Joes shadow crept up the side of the tank, meaning he was directly behind Gru.

"Hey, Gru!" Joe said as Gru turned around slowly, trying to keep his straight face from turning into a scowl of irritation.

"What ees it?" Gru asked impassively.

"Um… well I was going to ask you a favour, if I could. One single dad to another."

"How deed you know I was a seengle father?" Gru's expression changed from imperturbable to quizzical. He was also annoyed that Joe was bold enough to ask him favours at all, let alone the first day they had ever met.

"Well… I assumed because there was no lady with you." Gru eyed him with annoyance… what a foolish assumption. There are hundreds of reasons why a mother would have been unable to take her child to a first day at school leaving the responsibility to the father. Gru smiled a little, making an assumption of his own that Joe was perhaps a little lacking in the brain department.

"And I don't see a wedding ring." Joe correctly pointed out. Gru glanced down at his left hand and frowned. "You don't get more obvious than that."

"Hmm." Gru huffed. There was a pause. An awkward one.

"Soo… the favour." Joe continued… after waiting for Gru to ask him what he needed.

"Favour?" Gru said, feigning ignorance.

"Yeah… you know. I asked you 30 seconds ago if I could ask you a favour." Joe said, somewhat irritated.

"Ah yes. I have a terreeble memory yoo see." Joe regarded Gru with a little bit of agitation.

"Right… Anyway, my little girl Holly has asked if Agnes can visit her during the week sometime." Joe said. Gru shuffled a little in boredom and Joe noticed it clearly.

"So, I was going to invite her over on Wednesday, and if I looked after her for the evening, Holly would love to visit your house on Friday, that way I could watch the game in peace too." He finished.

"No." Gru said plainly. Joe's hopeful smile vanished and he replaced it with a pleading look.

"Come on Gru, my daughter really wants her to visit." Joe pressed.

"So, yoo want to look after my daughter the thord day she has met yoo?" Gru asked sarcastically. Joe hadn't considered this and felt a little embarrassed. '

"Uh… good point. Well why don't you come round for dinner then?'"Joe asked keenly. "I don't mind, I'm always interested in meeting new people, and you seem like a nice guy, guy."

"I am sorry I have just remembered I have an important… function.' Gru said a little quickly, "Yes, a function I need to go to. Family, you know how they are, right?"

Joe was obviously disappointed but he said nothing, and could tell Gru was being evasive and dishonest. He nodded to Gru respectfully, offered to shake his hand which Gru again ignored and walked back to his car dismally. Gru sighed with relief, managing to avoid the disaster of having to entertain this unusual man.

Imagine that, going to someone elses abode for 'dinner'? The idea sounded preposterous, and a little bit amusing. What was the point to it? Gru chuckled at Joe's pathetic attempt to ask him over for this dinner, and he climbed into his tank. Gru saw Joe's car, a hideous monstrosity clearly older than anything else Gru had seen, struggling to start and chuckled as he fired up the gigantic rocket turbine engine of his vehicle. He revved it a little just to add insult to injury and made his way out of the parking lot. He decided he would stop off at a coffee shop, a different one from last time, to freeze some more customers and buy a latte. He needed to do something dastardly, his day was spent around giddy children so he felt the need to let off some steam. Plus, lattes tasted nicer if you froze a queue of people to get there first. He hopped back into his silver monster after his little diversion, and finally made his way home.

Gru passed Joe on the way, his car by the side of the road steaming. He looked at the little scene and saw Joe on a mobile phone looking frustrated and deflated. Gru giggled at the man's expense a bit more as he drove past.

Joe eyed the giant tank car as it passed him by, and sighed dispiritedly.

**Authors notes:**

**Meet Joe, a new character for the world of Despicable Me. I'm sure you'll read more of him soon.**

**Comments, criticism and reviews are appreciated! I'll try to reply individually to each one, if possible.**

**Hope you enjoyed!**


	3. Chapter 2: Of Schools and Sulks

**Chapter 2**

**Of Schools and Sulks**

The next 7 days panned out much like the week before, and the week before that, and the week before that. Gru woke up, took the girls to school, picked them up, made dinner, put them to bed, took them to dance class every Saturday, and basically lived day by day. His work in the lab had decreased a lot due to having to look after the girls. Now Agnes was part of his daily school run, he couldn't spend as much time in the lab as before. While before adopting the girls he would easily spend 9 hours a day in the lab working on new plots and weapons, his daily visitations had shrunk to a measly 4. occasional evening visits would happen if he had the energy. But, he expected it was going to be this way and didn't mind at all. He was bored of villainy in some ways, more than he realised. It was… unrewarding. Plus he had some relative closure with his mother so there was almost no need for it, he had only really turned to villainy because it was the only avenue he could take that wasn't mocked by her. Well, to be fair … he didn't tell her at first so that's probably why he avoided mockery. Gru found himself often wanting a little excitement back though; now his life had settled into a routine. He felt he needed to shake things up, perhaps another heist would achieve that. So he decided to.

Still… 4 hours a day was better than nothing in Gru's mind. At least he could do something. He knew Nefario found it irritating that his girls took so much if Gru's time, but he didn't care what Nefario thought. Nefario had almost lost him the girls forever when he made that fateful call on Gru's "behalf" to return them to the orphanage. Luckily some "persuasion" meant he could keep them, normally if you return a child you don't get the opportunity to take them back.

Gru did try to make it up to Nefario on occasions but the surly old man never seemed happy with anything anyway so Gru gave up altogether and just stuck to his 4 hours.

Today was an important day for Gru and Nefario as things went. They had finalised a plan to steal one of the most expensive and beautiful paintings ever, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Since the theft of the Pyramid by Vector, virtually every important landmark now had armed guards patrolling them. The Sistine Chapel was no different.

The plan was simple enough. Gru and some minions were to go in late at night, and cut the entire roof away from the chapel. They were then going to shrink it and transport back to his lair and allow it to grow big again. The disused rocket launch pad would be perfect to store it in. He would then sell it back to the church and make lots of money, or threaten to break parts of it until they gave in. Gru needed the money due to his separation from the Bank of Evil as partners had led to much of his money drying up. Bases used a lot of electricity you know. However, the plan had its caveats. Jet packs were too noisy, and would alert the church guards to their presence, and they couldn't climb up there with harnesses either. Gru and Nefario both agreed, the anti gravity serum would be their best, and most stealthy option. However, using that had pitfalls of its own.

They were still trying to find an antidote to the serum but were so close to a breakthrough, and Nefario had a sample ready. Nefario also had a few devices that needed inventing to help them. The most important, was a laser cutter that was silent, portable, and was not too bright so that guards would notice the roof being cut. Very complicated stuff, but Nefario was up to the task.

At that very moment Gru was in the lab trying to pluck a floating minion, Paul, out of the air so they could test the antidote out. They failed constantly, much to Paul's amusement. Gru ran out of ideas, ladders were too short, the walkways, too far away, and any invention he could think of using would almost certainly kill the minion. Another minion, Steve, occasionally muttered to Paul and they giggled to each other.

'Nefario, deedent you make dat net gun I asked for last week?' Gru asked slumped to the floor, wheezing in exhaustion. He had given up trying to jump, Paul always moved just out of reach at the peak of his leaps, irritatingly.

'Net gun?' Nefario asked, scratching his leathery bald head. 'Oh! No I didn't. I don't… wait'.

'What? What ees it?' Gru asked him, regarding him with suspicion. He pulled himself up from his crouch and cracked his back, and Steve the minion winced at the sound. it reminded him of the time when his back was cracked in the ventilation tunnel at Vectors fortress. Cracking a minion made them glow, much like a glow stick. However, as was typical of Nefario, not everything went smoothly in the creation process. He accidentally created the glow gland attached to their spine, which meant the minion had to be painfully cracked and shook for the gland to burst and react with their banana DNA.

'Well… I made agun of _some_ description, yes.' Nefario said as he remembered.

'What deed you make, Nefario?' Gru asked dismally, not really sure if he wanted to know.

'Well… I thought you said _nit _gun.'

'What de heck ees a _neet _gun?' Gru asked, confused to say the least.

'Well… in England we call head lice… nits.' He replied distantly, as though in deep thought. 'I thought you wanted a dastardly weapon that fired them at your enemies as a torture device or something.'

'Oh for cryeeng out loud…' Gru said putting his hand on his forehead in frustration. 'What would I possibly use dat for, seriously?'

'I did wonder, Gru. It sounded like a crazy request, much like the fart gun.' Nefario replied amusedly.

'Ugh... not that again.' Gru complained, stretching his legs as they were achy from all the jumping.

'Did you ever use it in the end?' Nefario asked asked hopefully.

Gru didn't dignify him with an answer and brushed him off. Ironically now that Gru had given up trying to catch Paul, he floated close by within reach, and Gru plucked him out of the air. Finally, a break Gru needed.

'Bring him here.' Nefario ordered with a sudden ominous tone, and Gru brought the helium balloon like minion to the glowing white inventions and testing table. Paul began to whimper. Gru held him down by the table and struggled to stay planted himself, the serum was stronger in its effects that Gru realised.

'Dreenk dis' Gru said darkly as he handed Paul the flask. Paul regarded the flask nervously, and gulped down the enormous flask of pink fluid at a speed that seemed impossible for something so small. Gru let him go and he floated off.

'Ees it… Gah it ees not workeeng!' he frowned and threw his arms up into the air.

'Maybe it's the… wait. Look!' Nefario pointed. Paul began to float to the floor and bounced there a couple of times before settling, finally under gravity's influence again. Gru and Nefario shared a look of glee and Steve hugged Paul, pecking him several times on the face. Suddenly, Paul's eyes bulged and he expanded in size. His ears began to turn a different colour, and the it spread to other parts of him, until he completely bright luminous pink. Gru, Nefario and Steve scrambled behind the chemistry table for cover and cowered, waiting for the inevitable explosion. Paul began to blub incoherently as he panicked, reaching a size not far off of an average family car. He pursed his lips together, feeling an unusual sensation. Then... whatever had caused his expansion became evident.

Paul felt his tummy rumbling madly, and out of nowhere let out a large and booming belch which echoed down the halls. A few minions peeked round doors and through viewing ports, wondering what the noise was. It continued for about 30 seconds, and everyone had their fingers in their ears. Minions hundreds of yards away in different areas of the base all heard the deafening noise.

Paul smacked his lips in a form of satisfaction at the burp. He looked at his body and it was pink all over and giggled a little. Steve pointed and laughed hysterically. Paul slowly began to float upwards again, and the minion relaxed euphorically. Gru and Nefario both looked at each other and frowned in annoyance.

'Dameet.' Gru cursed, crashing his fist down onto the chemistry table.

'Bubee!' Paul said as he waved wistfully and floated out of the window and Gru watched him disappear into the haze of the sunlight, waving back.

'I… left that open again. I'll make a mosquito net so that the minions don't float out.' Nefario said.

'Why eesent it working?' Gru asked in frustration. 'You've had weeks to make the anteedote.'

'Maybe it's the paprika in the mixture. It must have reacted with some of the other chemicals. I will need to do more tests...' Nefario pondered while rubbing his chin. His rubber gloves made a squeaking noise against his skin.

'Pap- what?' Gru looked at him in shock. 'What ees papreeka in the mixture goeeng to acheeve?'

'Well I wanted it to taste nice, it smelled pungent originally and maybe Paul or another minion wouldn't have liked the taste.' As Gru often did in this lab, especially working with the brilliant but somewhat senile Nefario, he slapped his forehead in dismay, for the second time that day. Gru abruptly remembered the school run and checked his watch. He gasped, it was nearly 3.30, he was going to be very late if he didn't hurry.

'Please make one without Papreeka next time, I would rather not expand eento a balloon when I have to dreenk dis myself.' Gru warned as he turned to leave the lab. Nefario nodded in agreement. He jolted, and seemed to have an idea.

'You could do me a fav-' Nefario began.

'Later Nefario, I have to go. I need yoo to look after Edith and Margo when I drop dem home, I have to go to Agnes' school for some stoopid "parents welcoming evening".' Gru said hurriedly while running down a corridor towards the lift. His footsteps echoed until the crunching sound of the lift signalled he was gone.

'Uh… yes. I can do that.' Nefario sighed to himself. He couldn't possibly refuse now. Gru was too far away to hear it. He shuffled back to the chemistry table and eyed a few of the bubbling concoctions. He tapped one of the flasks holding a blue liquid, almost as if to get its attention.

'I _will _figure you out soon, antidote. You won't be able to avoid me much longer.' He mumbled to the flask. Steve and a couple of other minions who had gathered after Paul's belch mocked him by pulling faces implying he was mad and chuckling to each other.

**xxxxx**

Gru pulled up just outside Edith and Margos school and saw Edith sitting on the step outside the entrance alone, with her chin on her palm. It was 3.45, and the school had long emptied of its students and she was sitting there waiting. She saw him approaching and stood up. Gru waited for her to get in, and he heard the door slam loudly, and her feet stamping heavily on each step up to the cockpit. He was 35 minutes late.

'Hi.' Edith grumbled as he flopped into the seat behind Gru. Edith usually sat up front with him. Her school uniform had a few mud stains on them, but Gru ignored those.

'Hello Edith, sorry I am late. Lab eessues. Where ees your seester?' he asked, unintentionally overlooking her obvious dour mood. Margo usually waited with her.

'She's staying for after school homework class and said she is going to walk home with friends.' Edith replied sourly. 'If you didn't mind.' she added sarcastically.

'Ah… ok den.' Gru shrugged as he restarted his tank car.

'Good day at school?' Gru said after a small and uncomfortable pause.

'Yes.'

'Ok.' Gru finished. The conversation was clearly going nowhere.

He drove for a few moments in silence while Edith played with the pull strings on her hat, distracted. The silence continued, and Gru assumed Edith wasn't going to tell him what was wrong on her own, so he would have press her.

'What ees de matter Edith?' Gru asked, impatiently. She was often in these sour moods after school. He hadn't the faintest idea why; he usually just put it down to typical Edith behaviour and thought nothing of it.

'Nothing.' She snapped.

'Eenteresting nothing.' He scoffed. 'Eef you don't want to tell me I won't make yoo. Eet ees up to you, as they say in… umm… somewhere. I don't remember de rest of de sayeeng.'

'OK. Cool.'

Gru decided to leave it at that and drove to Agnes's school. Occasionally he would hear Edith huff, as though she was reminding him she was still in a foul mood. He ignored her. If she wanted to be childish he would let her.

'Oh, by the way, I need yoo to stay in de car weeth Agnes for half an hour or so, while I feell out some forms and talk to her teecher.' Gru said, forgetting completely that he asked Nefario to watch them.

'Fine. Just don't expect me to entertain her.' She muttered a little bitterly. Gru eyed her with irritation; her mood was insufferable. He knew there was perhaps an underlying issue, but what reason could she possibly have? She had no reason to be depressed, not one Gru could think of at least, which to him meant that there couldn't be a reason at all. She was probably just being a brat, he thought. He stepped outside as he mulled Edith's attitude in his head.

The car park was devoid of cars for such a busy school-run afternoon and the cars were parked up tightly on the streets instead. Gru mused that it was because of his last couple of visits that totalled at least 2 cars in the school parking lot per day. One parent did try and complain to him and demand insurance details, but he gave them 'the eye' and they soon stopped. Well, at least he still had it, he inhaled with pride as he stepped down the lift and strutted to the school. He glanced back at Edith and stopped. She looked upset now, not moody, and her hat covered her eyes mostly but he could still see her enough to discern her mood.

As he walked to the school entrance Gru heard a couple of cars car honk their horn and glanced over to the road, wondering what the commotion was. A sleek black car had slowed down in the street and a queue of cars had formed behind it. He watched it a little, wondering why it had slowed down. It looked a bit out of place, too. all the other cars were average looking or run down and dirty, with this one being expensive looking and clean. It had blacked out windows so Gru could not see who was driving it. When it picked up speed and drove on, he pondered it for a moment and then thought nothing of it.

Agnes came bounding out the doors towards him and into his opened arms, and he seemed to forget all about Edith and her mood. At least, that's the way she took it, watching them from the cabin. All of the children had already gone home and their parents were here. Gru was a little worried about if his lateness would have annoyed the teacher and hoped it would not be an issue since this is the first time he's been late. He sat Agnes down on the floor and patted her head.

**xxxxx**

Edith saw Gru and Agnes looking happy as always, Gru chatted with her for a few moments though she couldn't hear what they were saying. Agnes nodded sporadically and showed him a piece of paper. Edith sighed, and rubbed her tear covered eyes. Gru never seemed to do that with her. His conversations seemed to be simple small talk with her, as though he was just going through the motions. When he talked with Agnes though, Gru seemed much more engaged. She glanced up and saw Gru walking through the school entrance and Agnes was just getting to the car. Edith panicked a little and tried to hide her puffy eyes and wiped away any remaining tear residue.

'Hi Edith!' Agnes squeaked as she hopped onto her seat.

'Hi.'

'You had a good day at school?' Agnes asked pleasantly.

'Yeah. Fine, I guess.' Edith replied, lying. There was a pause for a few seconds and Edith hoped this would be the last they spoke until Gru came back.

'Daddy wants to know why you are upset.' Agnes blurted out. Edith jumped a little.

'Nothing, I'm fine. I don't need him to help me, I can deal with it on my own.'

'So there is something wrong, then. You wouldn't have said you can deal with it on your own if there wasn't something to deal with.' Agnes retorted angelically with a bright smile. Edith frowned at her in annoyance. She was far too insightful for such a small kid.

'Just leave it, OK?'

'Okay!' Agnes said, again with a butter-wouldn't-melt tone of voice. The 2 girls sat in silence for a minute more.

'Why don't you tell Margo?' Agnes asked sweetly.

'I. Don't. Want. To. Talk. About. It.' Edith said forcefully.

'I'll tell Gru something's wrong if you don't tell Margo.'

'If you do Agnes, you can say goodbye to Mr Fluffles.' Edith gambled with a sadistic smile.

'Its just a toy Edith. I can get dad to get a new one for me.' Agnes retorted.

Edith regarded Agnes with total shock, Agnes was openly admitting that her favourite toy was just that, a toy. Edith sagged into the chair defeated. Agnes seemed to have matured a lot in the past week. She seemed less clingy and more confident in herself. Gru had noticed the change, too.

'Fine… I'll tell her.' Edith mumbled.

'Tonight after dinner?' Agnes asked nicely.

'No.' Edith said bluntly. 'When I'm ready.'

Agnes gave her a look that suggested to Edith that if she didn't do it tonight, then she would regret it.

'Fine! God you're so annoying!' Edith looked out of the window at Agnes's small school and tried to see if she could see Gru from the window.

'How much longer is Gru going to be?' Edith asked sullenly.

'He is our dad now Edith, he likes it when I call him it.' Agnes interjected.

'I know… it just seems a little weird. Only known him for 2 and a half months' She replied looking down at her feet. Agnes noticed her posture, Edith seemed a little sadder than when she first got into the car.

'Try it Edie, its nice. We have a dad now remember!' Agnes said with a caring and happy tone. Edith straightened her hat a little and chewed her inner lips a little in deep thought.

'Yeah… maybe.' she said with a small, but fake smile. Agnes seemed to accept this and went back to rummaging through her bag, and she pulled out a chocolate bar and ate it ravenously. Edith sighed a little. Agnes was always so cheerful. Shehad every reason to be, but Edith didn't. How would she ever explain her problems to a super villain like Gru? She decided the best way was to say nothing as it would only cause more problems, she thought.

**xxxxx**

Gru was sulking a little in the corner of the classroom, alone. The room was full of parents mingling and chatting and he had no desire to mix with them, and the classroom was filled with colourful posters and lots of children's work. The teacher's desk was extremely tidy, and a small photo of a little boy was on it in pride of place. Gru managed to avoid Joe for now. Joe attempted to talk to other parents but he was rebuffed or avoided by them, so after a few minutes Gru saw him sit down at his little girls desk and rummaged through her schoolwork. He hadn't come over to Gru, and Gru was grateful for this. Perhaps though, Gru thought unintentionally, Joe was avoiding him? Gru wondered about this, and shook his head. Why should he care?

Gru watched him for a few moments, if just to occupy himself while he waited for the evening to be finished, and Joe occasionally smiled or laughed to himself as he looked through Holly's work. Gru regarded the man with a bit of piteous amusement, he always looked scruffy and didn't seem to have a lot going for him. Gru had always been raised to believe failure was wrong, and Joe's general appearance and simple way of speaking led Gru to assume he was a failure in some ways. Whereas Gru was always smartly dressed, clean and was a successful super villain, Joe was the opposite. Even his daughter was untidy, her knees always covered in dirt and grazes, and her clothes had more holes in them than Gru cared to count. Don't even get him started on their pathetic excuse for a car. It looked like it had been recently plucked from a scrap yard, it was a wonder the thing ran at all. Well, Gru thought with a little glimmer of amusement, it didn't always.

Joe had attempted to be friendly to Gru each day after school whenever Gru picked Agnes up. Gru was his usual self, sour, and he attempted to avoid talking to Joe. Whenever Gru did have to talk to him, he was monotone and disinterested. Perhaps Joe had given up talking to him finally.

On Wednesday, Joe asked Gru if he could get a lift home in his tank car because his own car didn't start and they spent an hour walking to school, Gru totally ignored the question and nudged Agnes through the entrance doors trying to get away from him, and the sound of Joe saying 'I'll pay you!' was drowned out by screaming children and parents trying to get them to calm down.

Gru stood there through this little proceeding doing nothing. The point of the mingling was to allow the parents whose children had made friends to chat to each other and build bridges. This would help the children have after school friends which the teachers felt was important for their social growth. If the parents didn't have opportunities to talk like these, then the kids may not be able to mix outside of school. Parents are busy creatures. He had scoffed at this idea when it was announced to the gathered parents, and watched the little people shyly start their interactions with amusement. The room had started off quiet, but once the parents had gained a little bit of confidence the volume of the talking rose until it became hard to hear individual conversations. Gru, as was usual for him, was avoided and avoided talking to anyone himself. He was fine with this.

'Hello Mr Gru.' He heard a melodic voice speak from next to him that made him jump. He nearly choked on his glass of water mid sip. He looked to the source of the sound and saw Agnes's teacher. He regained a little of his composure.

'Ah… Miss Jones. Hello' he said politely.

She stood there for a few seconds and looked around the room. Her brown hair was wavy and everything about her oozed kindness. Even her dress sense, with a nice long skirted smock that had flower patterns on it reflected this. He was constantly struck at how much alike her and Margo were, but was unsure if it was down to the glasses they wore or just the general mannerisms they seemed to share.

'How come you aren't talking to any parents?' she asked.

'Oh, I am fine here.' He said. Gru scratched the back of his head. He had hoped to remain incognito until they were 'allowed' to leave.

'Ok, well I came over here to ask you a question actually.' Gru raised his eyebrow, but wasn't looking at her. He was just standing by the wall… unsure as to why Agnes's teacher would need to ask him anything at all. She seemed to be sizing him up, and Gru felt massively uncomfortable.

'Oh?' he enquired in a forced ignorant tone and sipped his drink again. He caught Joes eye unintentionally and Joe seemed to want to get up. Gru frowned a little as he looked away quickly.

'Yes. Agnes has been saying some unusual things to other students' she explained. Gru eyed her with a little bit of worry. She had a look in her eyes…

'Oh?' he asked nervously now, but tried to act cool and collected. Still, the teacher could not mistake the sudden panicked expression that flashed on Grus face. She stood there acting impassively, but with stared with intent.

'Yes. We need to ask you about it,'

'What has she been sayeeng?'

'Well, for starters she told Gregory that if he kept trying to take her lunch money she would use her disintegrator gun… then there was her telling Holly about a secret lab under your house she can visit whenever she wants.'

Gru was panicking massively inside, and did his best to hide it from the teacher.

'Children often confuse rooms and random household appliances as something a little more… 'inventive',' she illustrated 'but usually a good year or two younger than Agnes.' Gru knew Miss Jones was calling Gru out, and was judging his every bodily movement, facial expression and posturing.

'I thank you for your concern, Miss Jones.' He spoke calmly and collectedly, 'I well talk to her about dis and see where she got these notions from'

Miss Jones raised her eyebrow a little, but seemed somewhat satisfied for now. Her little raise of the eyebrow was just so Margo-like it was ridiculous. Gru was going to analyze Margo all the time now, the poor girl.

'Ok Mr Gru, thank you.' She said.

'No, thank you, Miss Jones.' Gru hoped that would be the end of their conversation.

'Oh, one more thing.' She added. Gru slouched a little. 'Agnes has kept asking me to ask you to invite her friend Holly over for dinner, as she doesn't want to ask you herself, for whatever reason. I normally don't do this as a teacher I must remove myself from parent-pupil home life until it interferes with a child's school work or emotional health, but I must ask you simply because I want her to stop asking me.'

And with that, Miss Jones walked away to chat to other parents. Gru knew she didn't like him one bit. This would perhaps complicate his dealings with her in the future. Perhaps he could brainwash or even lobotomize her, he thought with a sly smile.

He then snapped back from his daydreaming about Miss Jones walking around like a zombie worshipping him and letting Agnes have perfect grades as a thought went creeping across his mind.

He sulked a little… he knew he was going to have to ask Joe eventually. He got up and walked over to him, and Joe looked at him. He seemed to break into a little smile and stood up to greet Gru.

"Lets just get this over with" thought Gru.

'Hey Gru, how's school for Agnes?' he asked happily while stacking his daughters schoolwork into a pile. He had learnt now that Gru would never shake his hand. He involuntarily made a motion too, but thought better of it and held his hand back. Gru smiled at this little movement. It was amusing, this man could be being pathetic and not even realise it.

'Fine. Leesten, Agnes wants me to invite Holly over for deenner. I am here to eenvite her.' He stood straight, and had his hands behind his back. It was as if he was addressing a military superior.

Despite Gru's harsh rudeness and formality, Joe beamed.

'Oh my god, thank you Gru! She'll be so happy!' He grabbed Gru's hand much to his chagrin and was shaking it feverously in gratitude. 'Thank you!'

'Yes… you are welcome.' Gru said with a little disdain, and pulled his hand away from Joe's. 'She may come over dees Friday after school only.'

'Excellent, oh she'll be so pleased.' Joe said happily.

'Yes… I am sure of dees.' Gru said as he to headed over to the desk and fill out the last form he needed to. Other parents eyed him suspiciously and moved out of his way. He began to fill out a silly form about 'Next of Kin'. As if his daughter would be hurt. Gru would always protect her.

'What ees dis?' Gru asked himself. Joe looked around his arm at the form.

'What is what?' he asked.

Dis part here, where I have to put in someone else's contact details. What ever for?' Gru muttered

'Oh that? You have to give information about where the teachers would send the girls say if you got called away on business or went to hospital and they had nowhere to stay. Usually you'd put in your mothers or something.' Joe explained.

Gru shuddered, the thought if sending his girls to his mothers grated on him. Plus, she lived far out of town so its not possible.

'Great… I have no one to put in here.' Gru furrowed his brow a little, and shrugged and made to fill out another part of the form.

'What, not got any family who live close either?' Joe asked as if he knew the feeling.

'No, I don't.' Gru said impatiently.

'Put my name in there.' Joe suggested and Gru gave him a sideways glance.

'Why shouldn't I leeve it blank?' Gru asked plainly. Joe had his hands on his jeans pockets, and Gru noticed one of his fingers poking from a hole in them.

'Well… they have to know someone. They usually deny admittance if you don't have someone to take your kids, as the school would get into trouble and they don't want that. Its cool, I doubt anything will happen, but put my name down and then you don't have to worry about Agnes getting kicked out.' He lifted out a hand from his pocket and pointed to some small print to confirm this fact.

Gru considered this, and handed the pen after a pause and a small twinge of reluctance, to Joe. He scribbled down his name and telephone number.

'There we go. All done.' He said proudly, in his amusing Brooklyn accent.

Gru nodded as a mild thank you, and turned back to fill out the rest of the form. This part was about medical needs and allergies. He put a line through it, as far as he was aware Agnes didn't have any. Nearly done, now.

'Hey, why don't you and me go get a beer tonight if we can find baby sitters?' Joe asked hopefully and out of no where. Gru halted.

'A beer?' Gru asked.

'Yeah, you know, down a bar. My treat.' Gru paused, he had never been invited out before. Still… he didn't want to go. Not with Joe in any case.

'No thanks.' He said as he continued to fill out the form.

'Oh, well… if you change your mind let me know.' Joe said, dispiritedly. 'See you around Mr Gru.'

Gru grunted in goodbye, and Joe promptly left. Other parents walked out of the room too, saying goodbyes and exchanging numbers. It was time to leave as the parents welcome evening was finally over. Gru didn't check his watch to see how long he had been, though he guessed between about half an hour and forty five minutes. No doubt Edith would be in pieces being stuck in the tank for that long.

Gru finished the form, gulped the remaining water and hurried out of the room. The journey home was quiet, Edith said nothing and had her hat covering her eyes mostly, and Agnes was happy watching the world whizz past from the window.

**xxxxx**

Dinnertime was going to be a little later than usual as Margo wasn't home yet. It was around 6.30, and the sun was beginning to glow orange and the sky darkened a little. The day was almost over.

Gru had settled onto his giant crocodilian couch in the living room and was reading a newspaper, while Agnes and Edith drew on the floor with the TV on in the background. Since having the girls around Gru hated having a TV.

All that ever seemed to be displayed on it now was annoying children's channels and movies, programmes that were far too happy happy joy joy for him. Since when did a talking bear and a bouncing tiger ever exist? It was stupid, but children just ate it all up.

He had been close to 'accidentally' breaking his TV numerous times, but realized Agnes may have had a fit of holding her breath until he bought a new one. He hated when she did that. Thankfully it had only happened twice, and it was enough for a lifetime.

'Edith, stop drawing on my pictures!' Gru heard Agnes complain.

'I'm only making them look better.' Edith replied brat like. Gru buried his head deeper into his paper, perhaps it would protect him from the children's argument.

'Stop it!' moaned Agnes again. She slapped Edith pathetically and Edith laughed at her

'No, you stop it!' Edith retorted, pulling a face.

The little argument seemed to go back and forth like this until Gru could take no more.

'Gorls… please.' He said impatiently.

'What? I'm just drawing.' Edith said indifferently looking at Gru.

'No she's not! She's ruining my pictures!' Agnes accused. Agnes had a huge scowl across her face and folded her arms.

'Am not!'

'Are too!'

'Gorls!' Gru barked. 'Don't make me put you in separate part of de room! Edith, stop drawing on Agnes's peectors.'

Suddenly Edith stood up, and stormed out of the room, but not before frowning madly at Gru. He mocked her expression and when her face changed to one of someone who looked wounded, he became confused and a little taken aback. He hand't exptect that to happen, usually Edith was hugely stubborn and would sulk for ages, but this time she looked sad. Agnes looked at Gru confusedly too. Gru slumped into his chair and put the paper back up to his face. He and Agnes winced in unison as they heard a door slam loudly upstairs.

'Edith! No slammeeng!' Gru shouted. And he heard a thud as Edith had probably gotten something to occupy herself with and set it onto the floor with aggression.

Thankfully, Margo had just walked in.

'What was that all about?' Margo enquired. She had seen Edith running upstairs and heard her slamming the door. She placed her teenage rockstar bag down on the floor and looked at them both with query.

'Edith drew on my pictures and Gru told her not to' Agnes smugly tattle tailed. Margo frowned a little at the tone in her voice.

'Anges…' Gru said annoyed and shot her a look to be quiet. 'But yes, dat is what happened. How are you?'

'I'm fine. Homework was dull, but my friend helped me.' She said still standing in the doorway.

'You know I am always here to help you with dat.' Gru mentioned.

'I know, I just like being out of the house sometimes.' Margo was still standing in the doorway, and looked as though she wasn't impressed with Gru, for whatever reason. He began to become uncomfortable, her gaze was a little fierce.

'Yes… of course.' Gru said, almost as if he should have known all along Margo was independent. He looked down at the floor in dejection.

'What's for dinner daddy?' Agnes asked changing the subject.

'I don't know, Macaroni and cheese?' Gru offered as he looked at her, smiling.

'Edith doesn't like that.' Margo said bluntly, placing a hand on her waist. Margo had an inkling that Edith was unhappy for a while. She didn't know specifics, but she knew the reason was close to home, and the sight of her sister running upstairs and slamming the door, and Gru and Agnes looking perfectly happy had been the final straw for Margo. She assumed that Gru was the cause, though she had a feeling he didn't realise. Now was the time.

'Well, I don't know den,' Gru mumbled. 'She never likes anything that child.'

Gru saw Margo's frown widen and he looked back at the floor. Agnes looked at Margo and back at Gru, and she felt sorry for him. Margo had Gru in a corner so to speak, and Agnes didnt like seeing Gru look sad. Still, she kept quiet, Margo didn't look impressed.

'Chicken and cashew nuts? I haven't made a Chinese dish in a while' he said. Agnes bobbed up and down excitedly, it was her favourite dish.

'She's also allergic to nuts.' Margo said, her tone becoming increasingly blunt.

Her posture was her "You should have known this already" posture. Gru knew it very well.

'Oh… I deeden't know.'

'Its in the adoption papers, obviously.' She said harshly. 'She's allergic to nuts, I'm allergic to bananas and Agnes is allergic to cats and dust. She and Edith also have haemophilia. Surely you read the papers, its important.'

Gru felt a more dejected and berated, but didn't say anything. He remembered the school form he filled in earlier, and crossed out the medical issues and allergies section. He must remind himself to change it.

'Well… we could order Pizza?' he asked hopefully. Margo and Agnes both seemed satisfied with this. Very satisfied. Margo even took her hand off of her waist, signaling to Gru her accusatory mood had been replaced with thoughts of pizza and its associated deliciousness.

'Go get your seester Agnes, we will order in de keetchen. We can bake cookies for dessert while we wait for delivery.' Perhaps that would cheer him up. He felt useless.

Agnes jumped up and gave a little squeal of excitement as she trotted upstairs to get Edith. Margo looked at Gru for a moment, and saw he seemed a little bit down.

'What are you going to eat? I could make you something while you Help Edith and Agnes bake if you want.' she asked, trying to change the subject and talk to him nicely. Gru was visibly downtrodden, and Margo realised sh had gone way too far with her comments and attitude. She hadn't seen Gru like this before, though she thought back to how his mother spoke to him when she visited last, and she felt terrible for what she said.

'Lets just order the pizza.' He said indifferently and they wandered into the kitchen.

**Authors notes:**

**Second chapter had already been done, so now updates will be less frequent. I planned to add chapter 2 in a couple of days, hoping for a little traffic to get people noticing the story, but so far I haven't had much. So I've added it now, and hopefully the fluff will get people interested in the possibilities of the story and returning (eventually)! I'm only about a page into chapter 3. Chapter 2 was a 13 page size 11 font Word document, so it was quite long, I can see chapter 3 taking a little while if it follows the plans I have for it. Bear with me on that.**

**You gotta feel a little sorry for Joe eh? He tries hard, and ends up making Gru hate him more or just laugh at him. **

**Just a few notes on Edith. She is quite bratty in my story, but is a sweet kid. I have an 8 year old niece who is almost exactly like Edith. She's funny, smart, and likes dirty things. She is also a little diva, and I imagine Edith being exactly the same. We didn't get much screen time with Edith, but she sulked a lot, and bit back at Gru. I'm trying to make my versions almost as similar as they are in the films, but since the film was quite low on long interactions with the girls, a lot of their mannerisms can be open to interpretation. I always saw Edith as being quite affected by her past, you can see she spirit break a couple of times during the film. The first time is when Miss Hattie says 'you wont be adopted' she just loses all of her energy and goes despondent for the rest of the scene. Margo, being mature and sassy was her way of coping with nasty adults and also protecting her sisters. She would answer back a lot as its a defence mechanism I think. But, she's respectful and shy too. Agnes is the easiest to write since she is just blissfully unaware for the whole film. I like writing her as insightful though, and she will occasionally interject with some harrowing words of wisdom for comedy and impact.**

**I hope you enjoyed the first two chapters! They have been a blast to write, and I'm really liking where the story is going. It will be interesting to see where Gru and the girls end up.**

**Reviews, comments and everything else, appreciated muchly! :-)**


	4. Chapter 3: Pizza and Other Problems

Chapter 3

Pizza and Other Problems

Gru had expected choosing a pizza with the girls to be a smooth and argument free experience. He was wrong. Edith had decided she wanted a pepperoni pizza and Agnes didn't like pepperoni. Margo, on the other hand, really wanted pineapple, but both Agnes and Edith thought fruit on a pizza sounded disgusting. Agnes then had the idea that a pizza should have chocolate chips on it. It took some explaining from Gru and Margo that a pizza should not have chocolate chips on it, and Agnes interjected that if a pizza could have pineapple on it, then there's no reason why a pizza can't have chocolate chips either. Edith began to sulk, as was to be expected of her. She had been acting out a lot recently, and Gru found her hard to deal with.

Couple that with his forlorn mood from being chided harshly by Margo, he wasn't feeling spirited like Margo and Edith.

"Hey Mr Gru, how about we get those chicken wings you like?" she asked buoyantly. Her attempt to cheer Gru up was obvious.

"I am not in de mood for cheeken. I'm not reely dat hungry." He answered back. Edith and Agnes were still bickering about toppings"

"Umm… well how about cheesy potato wedges? You loved those last time"

"Margo, I am fine, thank you.' She looked at him, her guilt was terrible and he was very distant. She looked out of the window and it was almost dark out.

"Can we go to a movie soon ?" she asked suddenly, after a pause,

"Edith got banned from there remember." Replied Gru.

"I was thinking just you and me? We could go and see that new film… what's it called?"

"I am not watching dat silly film about sparkleeng vampires and a bored female teen, Margo." He bit back a little. He slumped into his chair and pulled the menu up off the table and pretended to look at it, hoping Margo would leave him alone.

"No… the film you wanted to see, silly." She said. Gru's face was impassive, she didn't seem to be getting through.

"I think we should just order de pizza before Agnes cries or Edith has a sulk." Gru said flatly while concentrating on the menu. Margo sighed and felt a little upset, she hoped he would cheer up soon. Edith suggested extra cheese and Margo didn't like this idea, and soon all 3 of them were arguing amongst themselves while Gru looked on with a sour pouting face.

After about 15 minutes of bickering between the 3 girls, Gru finally gave in and allowed them to have a pizza each so they could have what they wanted on them. Gru resigned to just eat the crusts left over as the toppings the girls chose sounded like a recipe for a bad tummy, especially to someone as old as Gru. He was 51 after all.

Once the order had finally been placed, Agnes ran up to Gru and leapt onto his leg and smiled with a toothy grin.

"Cookies!" she cheered. She saw Gru's face drop.

"Agnes… I-" Gru began with a groan

"You promised!" she said cutely, her pupils dilating, threatening to swallow the room in them.

"I deed not promise, Agnes." He attempted to reason, but her eyes just got bigger and bigger and her bottom lip quivered ever so slightly. A man with a hear of stone might not have even noticed, but Gru did not have a heart of stone. His heart was made of strings, and Agnes pulled them.

"She is getting too good at this." lamented Gru in his head.

'Ooh! I bought white chocolate chips today!' Margo remembered suddenly and ran out of the room. Gru gave up, now Margo had mentioned white chocolate chips, Agnes's favourite chocolate it was all over.

"Fine…" he huffed.

'Yay!' Agnes hopped.

'Edith, you want to help?' Gru asked her. She was sitting at the table fiddling with something unseen under the table.

"Umm… can I make a giant one?" she asked looking up, her eyes were hopeful and wide, like Agnes's.

'Eef there ees enough meexture, then yes.' He said smiling at her a little. Her eyes widened a bit more she perked up. He found that this lifted his own spirits too.

'Yes!' she hopped off the chair and ran to the stove and leapt onto the countertop. Agnes eyed her jealously as she was not allowed on the counter. She was too small and clumsy. Edith was tall enough to climb onto the top herself, Agnes usually needed help, and usually knocked things off… hence her being banned from sitting up there. She brooded a little until Gru gave her some flour and mixture and sat her at the dining booth.

Margo returned with her chocolate chip cookies and they all started to bake cheerily.

xxxxx

The pizza arrived, and Gru paid the man and slammed the door in his face with his foot when the teens hand opened for a tip. Gru might have given him one, if it wasn't for the beckoning wag of the fingers. Rudeness got you nowhere with Gru, save for putting him into a bad mood. Gru and bad moods should not mix. There were consequences…

"Whatever dude!" the young delivery driver shouted from the other side of the door.

"Yoo are welcome!" Gru shouted sarcastically, and he heard the young man mumble something about eggs and toilet paper and he kicked the door. Gru's mood turned to thunder, and pressed small switch next to the door and a bright flash lit up the street outside, mixed with the screams of the man being electrocuted. Gru smiled deviously and chuckled. Gru heard a sudden rush of footsteps, terrified whimpers and the screech of tyres. He checked his order over to make sure nothing was missing and a loud boom shook the house. It came from the kitchen.

Gru ran back to the kitchen and saw flour everywhere, cookie dough caked the walls, and there was a mound of dough in the corner. His mouth fell open, aghast. Only Margo was in the kitchen, standing in the dead centre of the room. She has an exasperated look on her face, and her hands were behind her back in her usual look of coy anticipation. She was white as snow, and her brown hair was covered in cookie dough. Gru surveyed the scene in awe, and then he frowned as his vision flicked to Margo. She gulped.

"What… the h-" Gru began. Edith came out tumbling out of the cupboard she hid in. She was as messy as Margo and looked scared at the possible wrath she was due to face.

"It wasn't me! This thing in your kitchen, I… uh accidentally knocked it over and it then did something weird and I accidentally threw cookie dough at it and then it all…" she caught her breath "exploded and stuff, and this big bag of flour got knocked over by someone and then it went everywhere when the cookie dough exploded."

Gru didn't say anything. Edith was picking bits of cookie dough off of her hat.

Margo frowned and gave Edith a look of supreme annoyance at her obvious web of lies. Her face was all Gru needed.

"Yoo are cleening this up Edith." He said dominantly.

"But I didn't do anything." She answered back, blatantly lying.

"We will talk about this lator. Where is Agnes?" he asked, which made Edith's face drop into a frown.

"Gru talking about Agnes… again. How typical." thought Edith.

"I'm here." Agnes said from somewhere. No one could see her, and her voice sounded muffled. Gru and Margo started looking for her, and Edith secretly ate the cookie dough she had picked off her hat while their backs were turned. She started making flour angels on the floor.

"Agnes, where are you?" Margo asked.

"I don' know… its dark. But it sure is tasty here!" she replied. She sounded like she was

Gru, Margo and Edith all looked at each other and then their eyes moved to the pile of cookie dough that was in the corner. They tiptoed over to it and heard Agnes chewing, her cheeks smacking and she occasionally "mmm'ed" in approval. Gru rolled up a sleeve and put his hand into the pile, with a satisfying squelch. It was sticky. He felt Agnes's head and patted her until he could feel a eg.

"Haha that tickles." Agnes giggled as he pulled her out. There was a loud squishing noise and Gru tumbled over with the completely smothered Agnes. She was still eating, and Margo gave her a smirk.

"Fine, I used that machine thing you had on the worktop." Edith finally admitted when Gru stood at her disapprovingly from the floor. "I thought it would be cool to use that… thing to cook with."

He was smothered in dough now, and Agnes was offering him a bit of cookie dough she had plucked off her nose. He backed away from it in disgust.

"I've told yoo a million times, yoo don't touch my stuff Edith." Gru growled in exhaustion. Edith slouched and pouted.

"Come on Edith, you remember what happened with the grenade don't you?" Margo interjected, backing Gru up.

"Haha, yeah that was awesome." Edith replied rubbing her hands together with glee and a twinkle in her eye.

"Dat 'theeng' you used to successfully ruin my keetchen ees a mulitplier device. It was supposed to help me create more minions cheaply and quickly.' He explained to her in annoyance. " I only yoose it when I run low on soogar or coffee now. Eets not for aneetheeng else! It has side effects… OK?"

"Ok…" Edith answered.

"So… dees ees the last time I tell yoo. Do. Not. Touch. My. Stuff!' he finished, shaking his fist at her.

Edith nodded rapidly, her hat flopping up and down from the weight of the cookie dough still stuck to it. Gru knew it wouldn't be the last time, as Edith was Edith. Trying to curtail a child's curiosity, especially one like her, would be like trying to trap a fire in a paper box.

"Well… may as well eat de pizza den before we cleen ourselves, AND the keetchen." Gru muttered and the girls hopped up onto the filthy flour covered table. Gru saw lots of flour angels on the floor and looked at Edith wryly. She blushed a little, grinned a toothy grin and stuffed a whole slice of pizza in her mouth.

**xxxxx**

A small army of minions had shuffled out of the lift and transportation tubes that dotted the house to help clean up the kitchen. Margo and Gru were doing dishes that got covered in mess, Gru washing and Margo drying and putting away. Edith, on the other hand, sat on the table drawing patterns in the flour that remained uncleaned

Minions pottered about cleaning with specially designed brushes and cloths they could use. Virtually everything they used needed to have handles, they had 2 fingers and a thumb on each hand, and it was very difficult to hold things. This was another fine detail Nefario overlooked when making them. In fact, there were probably too many to count. But they worked hard and didn't argue. Some were sullen and got on with it, others curious and playful. Each minion had a distinct personality. This lead to clashes, and right now, that's exactly what was about to happen.

One minion had thought it would be a great idea to grab some flour and throw it at another. This minion was unimpressed and began to bark unintelligibly at the other minion.

"Phil! Tim! Stop eet!" Gru huffed at them. Tim, who had recently had his female hair removed shrugged and got on with his job. Tim however, wanted to mess around more. Tim had mocked Phil a few times for having to dress up as a baby, despite dressing up as a woman himself. Phil wanted to get his own back.

"Phil jumpa!" he said.

"No Phil, no." Tim shouted, well… the minion equivalent of shouting. They did not notice Edith watching them intently, a plan forming in her mind.

Tim and Phil bickered a little more and despite numerous huffs from Gru, they carried on. Edith watched them in amusement from her stool, spinning around on it periodically.

"Why doesn't Edith have to clean?" asked Margo, clearly unhappy with her sister creating a huge mess but not having to tidy up.

"Because virtooally everytheeng she touches ends up exploding or breakeeng. I am not prepared to reesk it." Gru said.

"Fair point." She said, giving Edith an irritated look. All she provoked was a big sarcastic grin and a thumbs up. Margo frowned and sulked a little.

"Perhaps a banning from de lab shooting range for 2 weeks will make her learn." Gru said smarmily. Edith stopped spinning by grabbing the table and she was aghast, her mouth was open wider than the grand canyon.

"No way! That's unfair, it was an accident I swear!" she argued.

"Eeet may have been an accident Edith, but I always tell yoo not to touch my theengs." Gru said in rebuttal.

"Fine. I never liked shooting anyway." She said huffily.

"Then why are yoo sulkeeng about it."

"I'm not, you are."

"That makes no sense, Edith." said Margo.

"Yeah? Well neither does your face." Laughed Edith.

"Maybe not being allowed to test the new rocket engines will shut you up?" Gru warned. Edith immediately pursed her lips and there was a silence Gru had been desperate for. Edith was struggling to keep her mouth closed, it was clearly a n effort not to carry on winding Gru and her bigger sister up.

'Margo, coold you go get Agnes out of the bath pleese?" asked Gru when the kitchen dishes were done.

"Sure thing."

"Oh, I'd like you to both have your bath now, and get ready for bed. I will be up soon to read you a bedtime story eef yoo like." Gru was exhausted, but the energy Edith had from eating too much cookie dough would need a story to settle her down.

Edith hopped down from the table and followed her sister out.

"Oh, send Agnes downstairs please, I need to talk to her!" he called after them. He surveyed the kitchen. It wasn't far off being spotless, but Tim and Phils bickering made it take longer. Gru ignored them and walked slowly to the loving room and flopped into the sofa.

"Gru, just the man I need to see." Said Nefarios gigantic face on his TV screen.

"Not now Nefario, I am exhausted and need to talk to Agnes." Gru replied half yawning.

"Its very important Gru. You need to come down to the lab as soon as you are done with Agnes. See you soon." And with that, the screen switched off and Gru could not refuse. He sighed. He could hear the little slaps of Agnes's bare feet on the floor from the hallway.

"Agnes…" Gru said expectantly as she appeared.

"You asked for me. Is this about unicorns?"

"No. dees is about school." He replied a little flatly. This made Agnes a little wary. Gru expected she knew was what coming.

"Do you have anytheeing to tell me?" he asked, looking down at her with his arms crossed. She was draped in a towel, and her little topknot hair was down to her knees, Gru often forgot how long it looked when it was not tied up. She shuffled a little, coyly.

"Um… no, I don't think so." She lied, shrinking back and twiddling her fingers together.

"So nothing about a disintegrator gun, or telling Holly about my lab?" Gru tapped his foot, still sitting down.

"No." Agnes said. Her no was barely audible. Gru huffed.

"I am goeeng to let Holly come over dees Friday." Agnes's eyes widened and she broke into a smile.

"EEF! You tell your teacher you meant my paint stripper gun and my basement."

"Done." She agreed. Gru held out his little finger.

"I expect a peenky promeese Agnes." He said bluntly, but with a hint of amusement. Agnes looked at his little finger as if weighing up her options. "Remember, yoo cannot break a peenky promeese."

She held out hers, and their fingers twirled together, and they shook in silence.

"Good. Now, off to bed weeth you. Get changed and I will be up shortlee to read yoo a story een a leetle while."

Agnes left almost as soon as he finished, nearly dropping her towel. Gru stood up, and cracked his back and made his way to the lab.

xxxxx

"Ah, Gru." Nefario nodded in acknowledgement. "Good to see you've come."

"Lets get this over with Nefario." Gru said frankly.

"You may not have realised, in your absence," Nefario said while clearing his throat "we have been getting some attempts at hacking our systems."

Gru was suddenly very alert, and very serious.

"Hacking?" he asked in shock. "When? I thought our seestems were undetectable."

"They are, but not if you know where to look and what to look for." Nefario commented in monotone.

"This isn't good. I need to know how we've been found. We took steps to remove all evidence of my lab here after the launch. We even erased minds! A lot of them!" Gru said, the alarm in his voice was unmistakable.

"Here, look at this." Said Nefario. He handed Gru a clipboard. It help a large amount of paper and Gru read it quickly, his eyes darting from side to side, drinking in the terrible information the paper contained. Nefario stood, silent.

Gru finished reading, and his face was dire.

"We must make the seestems more!" he ordered.

"Gru, we can't." Nefario said bluntly.

"What do yoo mean we can't! You are a genius! Feegure sometheeng out!" Gru flailed in anger.

A few minions in the lab were talking amongst themselves and were worried. They didn't entirely understand what Nefario was talking about, but the seriousness of the situation was plain.

"Gru, the systems are perfect. The only reason people attempted to hack was because they knew the system existed. They accessed remotely via a laptop so we cannot trace its location as it was always moving about." Gru looked at Nefario, horrified.

"A hacker can lock onto our signal with a moving device because our signal is static. How they discovered it I do not know." Nefario coughed. "The system did not allow them access, I doubt they wanted access anyway. They were trying to test our defenses. I also have these pictures for you, look."

Gru took them. He looked at Nefario in complete disbelief. The pictures were of the outside perimeter of his house, and two men in black suits were standing outside. The pictures showed them randomly prodding parts of his garden, and also making the defences kick in. They were taking pictures.

A sleek, expensive looking black car was just visible, a few yards down the street.

"Nefario… I have seen this car before." He said in revelation. "It was outside Agnes's school

"Its been here before, I saw it exactly 5 weeks ago. It followed you to Margo and Edith's school. I used a cookie robot to spy on it, but one of the men in the car fired at it and destroyed it before I could find out where they stayed. How they knew where it was I do not know." Nefario added.

"Why deedent yoo tell me before!" Gru shouted in frustration.

"I did, you just never listen to me. Those girls have taken over your life, and you've become sloppy!" Nefario fired back, and Gru halted. Perhaps he was right.

They stood silent for a moment as they both processed the information. Nefario sighed, and calmed a little.

"Gru, you need to pay more attention to what you do. We cannot remain incognito much longer with you running around in that tank, and doing as you please. Since the loss of the moon and the pyramid, things have changed." Gru nodded in agreement. "Be careful, that's all I am saying."

"You will let me know if anything else happens." Gru replied ominously, turning to leave

Nefario nodded.

"We may have to abort the Sistine Chapel heist." Suggested Nefario. "Until we know what we are dealing with. If Nefario ever suggested that they abort a heist, it meant the situation was grave.

"Agreed. Meantime, keep tryeeng with dat antidote. I will be back here tomorrow after I take the gorls to school."

As Gru ascended to the living room, he pondered the meaning. What did these men want? Were they agents, or worse? One thing was for certain though, Gru much blend in better. He needed to buy a normal car, and normal clothes. Gru's abhorrence of normality didn't matter. All he cared about was making sure that whatever all this meant, it did not affect the girls.

**Author's Notes:**

**Chapter 3 was shorter than I expected as most of the story I wrote seemed to fit better as part of chapter 4, so I made some changes and altered the order of what happens when. So chapter 3 is up earlier than I expected. I hope you've enjoyed the story so far! thank you to all those who've read it! 200+ people! I am proud. **

**I also have one review now, so heres my reply: I'm glad you like the story! And I'm glad you like my rendition of the girls so far, I found it hard to capture them properly on paper and I am glad you think I've got them down well. **

**Be ready for the next chapter in a couple of weeks. Things are going to get interesting. :-)**


	5. Chapter 4: Needles and Faucets

**Chapter 4**

**Needles and Faucets**

The girls usually had a bit of a 'mad hour' in the evening just before bed if Gru visited the lab. They always took advantage of his absence so they could make a lot of noise and have fun. Not that Gru stopped them from having fun The girls danced in their bedroom to their favourite music, had makeup parties and of course, pillow fights. Jumping around in Gru's house always caused hollow woody echoes and despite the size of the house, you could hear it easily in any room. Edith particularly made a lot of noise, so much so when she jumped around, the heavy framed pictures in Gru's living room shook.

But sometimes girls just want to be as loud as they can without anyone interfering, or so they didn't give their surly old super villain father headaches. Nefario did that plenty enough without them making it worse. Though they often did anyway through their innocent childish shenanigans, despite trying hard not to.

Gru always used reading to help the girls settle after a mad hour, it was soothing and his calm expressive voice wove the dialogue and descriptive writing into something almost real. The girls loved it, Gru was a fantastic story teller. He was even able to turn the 3 Sleepy Kittens book, a train wreck of creative writing in his mind, into a charming story. Since he adopted them, he had bought a bigger longer book that he could read to them in chapters, rather than small books that were over in 5 minutes.

Though, trying to read them a story while his mind was on other things was very difficult, and he knew the girls had picked up on it. His voice seemed monotone, and he trailed off often. He couldn't focus.

"… and the man waved to de peeple as he stepped off de boat. Dey were strange to him, dey had unusual tattoos een unusual places. But dey mimicked his wave, and dey signalled friendship to heem." Gru finished. He closed the book gently and looked up at the girls in their beds.

Agnes was dozing off, but Margo and Edith were wide awake and sat up straight.

"Can you read a little more?" Edith asked "I don't feel sleepy."

"Me neither." Margo added.

"No gorls, not tonight, I have a lot of things to do." Gru said distractedly as he bent down to kiss Agnes's forehead as she breathed deeply in her slumber.

The dim electric lamps in their room made her skin glow softly, and Gru admired his little girl for a moment. What dreams would she be having tonight, he though. He ruffled her hair and she stirred a little and turned over. He looked over to Edith who was sitting up. She noticed his brooding over Agnes, but Gru didn't realise.

"Please." She pressed, hoping he would give her a little attention for a change.

"No, I weel read two chapters tomorrow to make up for eet. OK?"

"Ok…" she said in a huff. She was still sitting up. "Fine, whatever."

"Both of you, lay down." Gru said, his voice suddenly stark. Edith flopped down heavily, unlike Margo. Gru kissed them both.

"Sweet dreams. I love you both, goodnight." Gru said closing the door behind him.

"Love you too." Margo replied.

Thankfully, because Agnes had fallen asleep, Edith managed to escape having to talk to Margo about what had been bothering her for the past few weeks. Edith circled this thought over in her head and was ever so close to saying something, but she caught Margo's eye. She looked at Edith, who had sat up again in Gru's absence, and raised her eyebrow as she usually did. This put Edith off, so she gave Margo a typical "what?" grin. Margo was too tired to want to argue with her sister about going to asleep, she frowned a little at Edith, and she turned her lamp off. Edith turned hers off too. For a minute, Edith listened to the sound of her older sister rustling in her bed until it ceased. She waited a few moments longer until Margo's breathing had increased in duration and deepened, and Edith guessed she must have fallen asleep by now. Edith crept out of her bed silently and tip toed to the book shelf, and she picked out the book Gru wrote. She looked at it for a moment, and put it back with a small snort of indifference. She grabbed a book she had always loved since she was a younger kid and had carried it with her in her bag each time they had to move around. It was her fondest childhood book, and she smiled at it as the caressed the spine in affection. Gru had never even noticed it sitting there amongst all the others, it was battered and some pages were falling out, and it stood out like a sore thumb next to all of the clean pristine ones Gru had bought a few days after the rescue to build up a collection.

She carried it quietly to her bed and began to read it in the moonlight.

**xxxxx**

Gru made his was back to the lair, debilitated and despondent. What a day it had been. He walked through his base like a sleepwalker, not noticing any of the affectionate salutes or waves minions gave him as he traversed the myriad tunnels and walkways on his way to the lab. He did have one niggling though though, why had he never build the lab closer to the entrance? I was the place he visited the most often, most other parts were only populated by minions.

Still, nothing he could do about it now, he thought as the large door to the lab opened in front of him with a sucking noise. Nefario glanced up at the sound, and was somewhat surprised to see him again. usually when Gru left for the evening he didn't return until the next day.

"Gru?" he said in mild surprise. "What are you doing back here?"

"I had a thought." Gru said stiffly. "Did you check the cars plates?"

Nefario pondered for a moment and lurched forward a little and gasped. A minion was tapping him on the back and in his old age, things happening to him suddenly, even something as minute as a minion tapping him on the back to get his attention, startled him. Gru laughed inside, but his face was stoic and unmoving.

"What is it Mark?" Nefario said a little breathlessly.

"Nefario a poppa. Dooba me loosen!" Mark said. His face was a little raw just above his mouth, removing a permanent moustache should have been painless, but when Nefario does something to you, its anything but. He handed a clipboard to Nefario.

"Ah, yes." Nefario answered expectantly. Gru raised his eyebrow as Nefario read for a few moments and didn't say anything.

Gru cleared his throat. Nefario looked up.

"Gru? What are you doing here?" he said in mild surprise.

"Oh… for goodness sake." Gru said exhaustedly. "The plates Nefario. Did you check the plates?"

"The plates? Of course not, why would I need plates? They are all in the kitchen." Nefario said in mirth.

"No you eediot, from the black car!"

"OH! Yes… no." Gru looked at Nefario with a huge amount of contempt. Nefario looked back, impassive as always.

"And, why ever not?" Gru asked quietly, attempting to calm down.

"Because the plates were blocked by a neighbour's tree." Nefario said, matter-of-factly.

"Dat ees it? A tree?" Gru's tone of voice suggested was close to a breakdown.

"Yes."

"I… well… OK." Gru stammered.

"Besides, these guys are probably professionals. I'm sure they'd have covered all angles." Nefario added.

"Yes… but eet doesn't hurt to look." Gru muttered.

They paused for a moment. Nefario busied himself with tapping random bubbling concoctions in their unusually shaped containers. The clinically bright white lighting was giving Gru a headache, the light was much brighter the lamps in the girls room, and in Gru's exhaustion his body didn't seem to want to adjust. It had decided to cause him pain until he removed himself from the location instead. Gru squinted a bit, and Mark pottered along, no doubt to carry bombs or something Gru though.

"Oh, by the way Nefario." Gru said suddenly.

"Mm?" Nefario didn't look up from his potions.

"Do you theenk it is worth replaceeng my tank car with sometheeng normal and inconspeecuous?"

"Hmm…" Nefario considered. "It can't hurt, but you have their attention already. If you have seen them at Agnes's school and not noticed them following you before, they may know where Margo and Edith go to school. I'd probably keep it, you may need the protection it offers."

Gru mulled this over. Nefario was right. He didn't know the strangers intentions or if they had any at all. But, protection couldn't hurt.

"What is the amour plateeing rateeng on the car?"

"Class B." Nefario replied flatly, still not taking his attention of the chemistry table. "Pistol rounds and very low powered rifle rounds. It won't be able to stop anything military grade, but it will reduce the likelihood of getting seriously injured."

"Then… I'd like you to upgrade the armour. What about the glass?"

"High strength, impact-resistant polymer. Will cause most rounds to ricochet harmlessly off at the right angle. An angle of over 60 degrees will still letmost rifle bullets penetrate. It was never designed for combat Gru, only dastardly transportation."

"Why not?" Gru asked, astounded. "What if I was attacked by an enemy?"

"We ran out of money when we started construction, and we had to cut back on certain things." Gru noticed Nefario was a little distant and cold with him.

"I want you to make this theeng impervious. I don't care about money, if we have run out, I will steal some." Gru ordered. Nefario quietly nodded.

"Also, check out the facial records on dees two men. They may have creeminal records or sometheeng. It doesn't hurt to check all avenues for eenformation." Gru barked.

"No it doesn't." Nefario stood there for a moment and then faced Gru, and Nefario seemed uncomfortable.

"What ees eet?" Gru asked on noticing this.

"Well… I was going to ask you something." Nefario said quietly.

"What?"

"We are close to a breakthrough with the antidote."

"And?" Gru pressed, a little excitedly.

"I know how you feel about needles. I need a sample of your blood." Gru looked at him in shock. "Its important. It might be the key."

"Absolutely not!" he said backing away.

"But I think iron and haemoglobin from the blood may be the key." Nefario said as he stepped closer.

"No! Yoose your own." Gru said terror stricken.

"I have an iron deficiency. It has to be yours." Nefarios tone was empty. As if this would help Gru feel better…

"No! I weell not allow you near me weeth a needle!" Gru stomped and turned to walk out.

"I thought you'd say that. Minions! Execute Alpha!" Nefario shouted.

Minions, a good 50 or so from out of nowhere, poured into the room seemingly from thin air and leapt on Gru. Gru eyes flicked about in fearfulness as they held him down. None of the minions looked into his face, and theirs were all inexpressive.

"Dave? Peter? JOE? What are you all doeeng!" Gru gasped in terror and the minions ignored his pleas. Nefario stood over him with a gigantic needle, his face a sour expression.

"No Nefario! Please I beg."

"I didn't want to have to do it this way."

"Do what?"

"Its… for our own good." Nefario said flatly and he moved in closer.

**xxxxx**

Joe sat at his dining table reading a newspaper for a few moments. The news was typically bleak, as ever. Murder this, arrest that, virtually every story indicated that mankind was falling apart. Of course real life was much different. It was happy for most, tough for others, but generally, mankind was as its name suggested, kind. There was good in this world, Joe knew. He had always been of the mind that karma is real and those who do kind to others will get it back in return somewhere down the line. It kept him going in many ways. That, and most of all his daughter.

He read a little more and came across a small story on a successful banker being found guilty of fraud and fined massive sums of money. He laughed. That man was going to be in a similar situation as Joe, he thought. He looked around at his apartment as the words "situation" formed in his head, realising what that meant.

It certainly was a state for sore eyes. The wallpaper was rotting in most places, and the ceiling wasn't white but a dark cream from years of neglect and in some places there were water stains and mould growing there. The apartment was small and his kitchen was part of the living room. There was a separate bedroom and a small bathroom, and that was about it. His sofa was a permanent bed, he had Holly stay in the larger room and he slept in the front room.

He had been a reasonably successful man a few years ago, but now, sitting in his shoddy excuse for a domicile, you'd think anything but.

What made Joe laugh most about newspapers, were the adverts. Always they advertised products he couldn't afford, houses he would never be able to live in, and holiday destinations he would never visit. He exhaled a little in shame.

He got up, and walked over to his sink to fix himself a drink of water. The apartment had no air condition unit that worked, and it was hot. It was the middle of July after all.

The tap creaked and groaned as water from who knows where made its way to the spout, and all of a sudden the spout exploded and water sprayed everywhere. Joe wailed as he was soaked through, and he scrambled to try and fix it.

The sound of the water and Joe's panicked shouts woke Holly up and she zoomed into the kitchen, alert and hysterical.

"Are we being robbed? Are those men back?" she screeched. She saw her dad being attacked by a huge spray of water and flailed, shouting incoherently and repeatedly about

Joe ignored her as he attempted to force the broken spout onto the pipes and struggled against the pressure of the water forcing its way out. Eventually he managed to secure it, and the sound of rushing water ceased. The sound that replaced it was the constant drip-drip of everything that got wet, plus his and Holly's panicked, heavy breathing. He giggled a little, which turned into a hearty laugh. Holly joined in.

"Man… maybe a bit overkill for a glass of water, don't you think kiddo?" he said merrily.

"Yeah dad, I think you got yourself a billion glasses of water there!" he replied in hysterics. She rolled on the floor, forgetting the floor was akin to a lake.

"Ah, now you got yourself all soaked!" Joe said light heartedly.

"Oops… sorry." she said coyly, and ran into the bathroom and slammed the door. A hairdryer switched on and Joe smiled. He was such a doting father, and he loved his daughter more than anything in the world.

Joe surveyed the damage, and set to work drying everything up. Holly came back into the room and helped.

"Come on, you. Get to bed." He said, nudging her a little.

"Hey, I wanna help! I can't sleep after all that!" she retorted.

"Fine, just don't make a mess OK?" he said pinching her nose endearingly. "I know what you are like!"

"Shut up." She giggled.

"Oh by the way, Mr Gru and Agnes have invited you over to stay on Friday. Holly looked at him as if he had punched her.

"Are you… serious?" she asked quietly at first, trying to process what her father had just revealed.

"Yeah. He is gonna take you after school with Agnes." Joe said smiling.

It was as if someone had flicked a switch within Holly somewhere, as her questioning face had disappeared instantly, to be replaced with the biggest smile Joe had ever seen.

"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh…" Holly squeaked, her hands at her mouth in shock.

"Happy huh? But you gotta help me clean up first or Mr Gru won't want you to stay. Her excited jittering slowed a little and she stopped saying "Oh my gosh" over and over again and she held out both hands.

Joe passed her a small cloth, and they both started mopping up the water, and Holly was humming a little tune in time with her scrubs, occasionally squirming with giddy excitememt.

Joe watched his little girl mop with him and he smiled.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Authors Notes:**

**Firstly, thank you to my latest reviewer. I'm glad you are enjoying it ^^, its good to see my story is enjoyable and it makes me want to continue writing it! As always, reviews and criticisms are most welcome!**

**The next chapter will be quite long and as such may take a while to reach you. I have started a new job and its easter weekend so I have been spending a lot of time with family so haven't had much time to sit down and write. Chapter 4 was quite short as I wanted the main crux of this chapter to flesh out the lead up to Friday.**

** Chapter 2 was 7000 words long, I expect chapter 5 to be at least 11,000 words. Maybe close to double my current longest chapter! Stay tuned readers! :-)**


	6. Chapter 5: That Friday Feeling

**Chapter 5**

**That Friday Feeling**

In two separate households in two very different places, the same things were happening. Two fathers were trying to get their children ready for school, though the mood in each house was a little different.

In one home, a little blonde girl could hardly contain her excitement, and her adoring and devoted father cheerfully whipped her up a delicious breakfast of sausages, eggs, beans and toast. That was her favourite meal, and since she kept saying how she was the luckiest girl alive, that father decided to make her something tasty to add to the excitement.

In the other household, a tall and boldly statured man sullenly made breakfast while his 3 vastly different daughters did their usual thing. Their breakfast was silent for the most part, except the youngest girl's penchant for singing to herself at random moments.

Attempting to get these 3 girls for school had its own set of problems.

"Edith, put on your school clothes." Gru moaned for the 10th time that day. Edith pulled down her pink hat to cover her face entirely.

"No. I don't want to go to school." She crossed her arms, as if that action would seal the deal and Gru would have to give up.

"Edith, yoo have to go to school. Eet ees final." Gru stressed, trying to sound authoritarian, but it failed. Agnes was busy singing her favourite song "Unicorns, I love them" and Gru was trying to tie up her laces. The chaos of the morning, trying to dress a 5 year old, a sulking 8 year old and also an 11 year old was trying his patience. Not that Margo or Edith needed his help, but they weren't exactly helping him either. Margo usually chipped in and helped Gru with Agnes, or even took over entirely, managing the situation in her own way while Gru tidied or did other things.

"Sit still pleese Agnes." He snapped quietly, holding her feet tightly so she couldn't kick them around.

Gru looked over at Edith and she clambered underneath her bed covers,

"Margo, please tell your seester." Gru pleaded to Margo, and her glasses flashed in the sunlight as she turned to him. Her eyebrow shot up as it usually did in situations like these, and her expression was one of derision.

"Edith, can you get ready for school please?" she asked politely. Edith did not move, she folded her arms and held them tight against her chest in protest.

"Well there you go Mr Gru. I can't solve everything." Margo said bluntly. Gru slumped.

"Edith, you are not staying here." Gru said harshly. "Now, you weell put on your clothes or I weell ban you from ballet class for 2 weeks."

Edith did not utter a word and her hat was still pulled down over her face, but she got up in a sulk and walked over to her wardrobe and picked put her school clothes.

"A little privacy please?" she pointed at the door to Gru. "_Mr _Gru."

Gru felt stung by the emphasis on "Mr", as if Edith meant it as an insult. But he did as he was told, and walked out of the room.

"I weell be waiteeng in de car." Gru said gruffly as he closed the door behind him.

"Edith, that was a little mean." Agnes said quietly.

"So is making me go to school." Edith interjected bitterly.

Agnes shrank back from Edith and Margo ignored them. She tied her hair into a pony tail and adjusted her glasses.

The three girls traipsed to Gru's car, which was shuddering under the power of its engine and Gru was sitting in the cockpit waiting. They clambered inside and Margo close the metal door with a resounding clang.

**xxxxx**

"Dad, can we buy some ice cream for later?" Holly asked sweetly as her father drove her to school. She held her hand out of the band window to feel the wind rush through her fingers.

"Later?" he inquired. "You are over at Mr Gru's place. I'm sure he has ice cream."

"Yeah but not strawberry and raspberry whirl. And what if he has dairy only?"

"Oh, yeah. I didn't think of that." Joe realised to himself. While the car was idle in traffic he searched through his wallet and found a $10 bill, and not a cent more. He sighed; it wasn't going to buy him a lot.

"Oh, did you remember my homework bag? I might need it." Holly mentioned. Joe slapped his forehead in dismay and grunted. "Forgot it, didn't you?"

"Yes… damn it." Joe cursed. "You'll just have to make do without for today."

He could see a light trail of grey smoke ahead of his vehicle and realised Gru was probably not too far in front. Joe needed to swing by the store fist and buy Holly some non-dairy milk for Mr Gru, as she has lactose intolerance. As Joe indicated to pull into a small store a large, sleek black car sped past him, its engine roaring.

"Son of a..!" Joe cursed as he swerved to avoid hitting it. The car had overtaken him in an oncoming lane, and a couple of cars from that lane swerved to avoid it too.

"You asshole! Look where you are going!" Joe barked leaning out of the window.

"Dad…! Language." Holly reprimanded him loudly.

"Sorry…" Joe murmured. "Nice car though. V10 I reckon."

"Nah, that was a V12, I could tell easy." Holly put in smugly. Joe smiled at her.

"What a clever girl you are. You keep filling your brain with info and you'll be making lots of money when you are my age." Joe said cheerily.

"I would rather be a princess than be smart." she smiled innocently. Joe smiled at her and she beamed back. He reminded himself to not let her turn into a bimbo when she grew up, he wanted a smart successful daughter. Only the best for his little girl he always said. Well, the best he could afford.

Joe parked up and popped into the store for his wares while Holly waited in the car patiently.

**xxxxx**

Gru hadn't said a lot since he left his house. Neither had the girls. Edith was sulking like she usually did every morning on their way to school, and Margo had reserved herself to read again. Agnes was playing with one of Edith's hats tie strings, and she didn't seem to notice. He rubbed his arm a little and Margo looked up at him.

"Why do you keep rubbing your arm?" she asked. "You've been doing it all morning."

"Oh… it ees notheeng." Gru said wearily. "Nefario needed to take a sample of my blood."

Gru shuddered at the thought. He hated needles, and Nefario as was usual for him, used a huge and painful device to do a very simple task, in this case collecting a sample of blood.

Margo's facial expression darkened a little and she furrowed her brow, as the cogs in her brain obviously worked out several odd scenarios that might require Gru's blood. Gru didn't entertain her curiosity.

"Mutants, I bet." Edith cut in sarcastically.

"No, not mutants. Why would I need those?" Gru asked sarcastically. Edith frowned.

"Well… why did you need those yellow things?" she smartly pointed out. Gru slumped a little in his chair.

"I needed help in de lab. Stop with the remarks." He snapped. Margo frowned at Gru now, and both girls were staring daggers into his back.

"I never wanted to go to school anyway." Edith moaned.

"That has nothing to do weeth our conversation"

"So?" Margo joined in.

"So?" Gru said loudly. "So… I want eet to stop."

Both girls crossed their arms and stared at Gru in defiance. He frowned at them deeply, but their scowls did not relent.

"Whats that red light?" Agnes pointed.

"What?" Gru burst out in a slight panic and looked at his instrument console. A small red light was flashing and he began to press some buttons. The girls watched him for a moment, before a klazon burst into life and shrieked continuously. Edith and Agnes both place their hands tighly against their ears.

"Gru, whats going on?" Margo shouted above the noise.

"Gorls, keep your heads down!" He shouted, and Margo's mouth dropped open.

"What? Why?" she asked desperately.

"Just do eet!"

"Threat identified. Level one marker. Activating Threat Escape Protocol. 30 seconds." A raspy and tinny robotic voice sounded over a loudspeaker, and Agnes began to whimper.

"What does that mean Gru?" Margo wailed, looking at him desperately.

"Eet meens you need to keep your heads down and fasten your seetbelts." He violently shoved Margo's head down.

"Hey! Get off." She screeched, clawing at his hand. Edith and Agnes both huddled up and ducked down in a similar position to how Margo was being held.

Gru looked around at his console and saw a camera video feed had popped up. There it was, the black car, roaring past traffic some distance away. It was highlighted with a bright red outline and a reticule.

"Threat Escape Protocol finalised. Initiating Engine warm up. 10 seconds"

The car began to shake violently as the voice finished. The girls began to scream, the sound was immense and there was a dull bassy roar as the engine began to warm up.

"Hold on tight gorls!" Gru shouted.

"3.."

"What's happening?" Gru heard Edith scream.

"2…"

"Gru! Let us out now!" Margo roared at him as he held her down.

"1…"

Gru closed his eyes tightly. He clasped his seatbelt hard, and held Margo's head down tighter than ever.

"Launching Vehicle."

The oddest thing about the sudden jolt of the ship was it was followed to by a total void of sound and movement. The huge roar emitted by the engine as it warmed itself up was deafening, but now there was a serene peaceful silence, save for a whistling sound, which Gru assumed was the engine outputting massive amounts of thrust. Gru and the girls felt the most profound sense of elation, there was no gravity at all and they began to float in their seats. The view outside the cockpit was a blurry white light.

Almost as quickly as the silence came, it went. The ship began to lurch violently and shudder, and the engines whistling became a roar and the ship began to slow. The white blur settled into a mass of colour and dimension, and the rolled to a violent halt.

"Escape procedure complete. Initialising self-cooling lock down. 30 minutes until completion. Please wait." The ships computer voice said with stark indifference to what had just transpired.

Gru and the girls were all coughing and wheezing, and Gru looked around to the girls.

The heat was intense, being only 6 feet away from a huge rocket engine that had boosted them God knows where was perhaps why. It was glowing a dull cherry red.

"Gurls… everyone ok?" he asked breathlessly, and none of them answered. He could hear Agnes's whimpering and Margo was tending to a slightly catatonic Edith. "We need to get out, the ship will take half an hour to cool its engine and eet ees too hot in here."

Gru climbed down outside his tank car and the girls followed, unsteady on their feet. Margo was checking Agnes and Edith over like a worried mother, looking for cuts, bruises and anything out of the ordinary. Agnes seemed to relax a little but she was still visibly terrified, Edith's face was inexpressive and empty. Gru stretched his back and looked around him for somewhere to sit, while the ship's engine clicked and flexed loudly as it cooled.

He sat down on a large rock a few feet away from the girls. He slumped, and put his hand on his face, rubbing it a little to sooth his pounding headache. He squinted at his surroundings and saw a farmhouse and nothing else of note, save for the tank settling on a long dirt road. A shadow fell over him and he looked up. Margo was standing over him, her expression was furious.

"What the hell was that?" She shouted at him. "You nearly got us killed! You scared Agnes half to death!"

Gru looked at his oldest for a couple of seconds and considered what to say.

"I am sorry, Margo. Eet is a countermeasure built een to the car." Gru explained hoping it would settle her.

"A countermeasure for what?" she asked with ire. She had her hands on her waist, and her skirt flapped in the light breeze. Edith had sat down in the dry dirt and seemed to be coming around, and she played with her hat straps as she usually did. Agnes stood with Margo, clutching her for comfort.

"Eef it indentifies a threat Nefario programmes een, eet weell acteevate an escape procedure and launch us out of harms way." Gru was exhausted and his voice sounded strained. The ordeal had placed much strain on him and the girls.

"A threat?" Margo expression changed from anger to worry, and she looked at him wide-eyed. "There's someone trying to hurt us?"

"No, I'm just saying it activated." Gru reassured her, but lying at the same time.

"I'm not stupid Gru, it wouldn't just activate if there wasn't a threat. What is going on?" She snapped. Gru did not want to tell her about the black car following them; hearing about it would only frighten her.

"Nothing." Gru lied again. He hated doing so, if only recently. Lying used to be an easy thing for him to do, and he lied to the girls often in the first couple of weeks. Although he felt it was justified as it kept his secrets, largely secret. Now though, since they were his family, he tried to avoid lying.

"If you won't tell us what is going on, we are not getting back into that car with you." She said aggressively, pointing to the tank. Gru considered this ultimatum.

"No."

"You are pathetic Gru." Gru looked at Margo and her gaze was piercing. He was hurt by this comment, and as hard as he tried to hide it, he couldn't.

"Look, Margo." Gru began tentatively. "Some things are best left unsaid."

He looked away and tried to occupy himself by getting his phone out, hoping this would create a barrier between him and the conversation and hopefully end it.

"When you adopted us, we had no idea you were a villain." She answered back. "And when we found out, we didn't care at all."

Gru smiled a little sullenly, it was nice that the girls didn't judge him for being a villain, as so many others did. But, Margo continued.

"But if your job might mean that me or my sisters get hurt, I just can't believe you would let it get that far. You need to choose what's more important."

Margo collected her sisters and they trudged into the tank. The sound of the door closing with a dim metallic thud echoed in his mind, and it brought him a taste of reality.

She was right, and Gru had no answer for it. If he really was putting them in danger, it never occurred to him at first. What if it did put them in danger? Was the black car and the hacking a product of his deeds? He had so far, been totally incognito as a villain, stealing/committing evil anonymously and carefully. He was a well-regarded villain in villainous circles, but they were so secretive no one would ever be able to trace any heists back to one particular villain. And, despite being evil, villains followed a strict code of conduct and never talked about their deeds to anyone, and never revealed another villain to anyone else, either.

Gru pondered. The moon heist had been planned weeks before the girls arrival. The execution of this heist was timed perfectly, but the only problem was Vector stealing the shrink ray. If he hadn't, Gru would never have adopted the girls in the first place. Gru never planned on keeping them, but things change and he loved them deeply. However, he did wonder… who knew about the heist and Gru's involvement? Who exactly were these people, and what did they want with him? He tooks steps to remove any knowledge of his involvement, largely by brainwashing neighbours and many other people when his rocket ship crashed into the busy street outside the girls dance hall. It had taken weeks… and he had left it at that. Despite the scale of his heist, as far as Gru was concerned the world would still never know it was him. If anyone else knew about it, it was not good news at all. So how did the men black car find out about him?

Gru picked himself up and walked slowly to the door of the tank. He hesitated as he moved his hand to the door. He gulped and opened it up with a creak, wondering what new challenges he would face now.

"Gorls?" he asked quietly, poking his head around the door.

They were sitting at the small table, silent and depressed. Only Agnes acknowledged him by looking up.

"Leesten keetens, I will tell you what ees going on, only eef yoo promeese not to get scared or worry too much."

Margo looked up at him and gave him a questioning raise of the eyebrow and pursing of the lips, as if to point out the girls not getting worried or scared depended entirely on what he was about to say. Gru sat pulled up the stool that had toppled over during the escape launch and placed it down by the table and sat down gently. He leaned over and sighed, and prepared himself.

"Dere has been a black car followeeng us for a few weeks." He admitted carefully, his tone calm and warm, trying not to sound serious. The 3 girls stared at him, each one a similar face of shock. Margo's expression was more a shocked sort of anger than her sisters, however.

"Me and Nefario do not know what dey want, so we have been moneetoring dem."

"What, so the ship flew away because the car followed us?" Edith asked.

"Yes, precisely. When Nefario built the car, he added an escape protocol to eet." Gru explained. "When we programme in a certain threat, the car will acteevate a launch that allows us to escape a potential threat."

Gru paused. The girls looked at him and almost willed him to carry on. Especially Margo, who crossed her arms to make a point.

"The black car usually follows us a certain deestance away and stays that way, but we don't know why. Today it was driving to us at high speed and weaving een and owt of traffic, so the ship made de assumption dey were intending harm, so it shot us out of the city."

"Cool." Edith said. She seemed to enjoy the conversation more than Margo or Agnes.

"So, how are you going to get rid of them?" Margo pointed out, aggressively.

"Well, I don't know. I cannot just blow up their car, I weell get arrested and you girls will go back to Miss Hatties." Gru countered, and Agnes shuddered at the thought of going back to the orphanage.

"Well… that's gotta be better than dying." Margo spat. Gru looked at her aghast, and he felt awful. She looked away, her arms still crossed, indifferent to his obvious deeply hurt stare. Agnes snuck a look at Margo, but both her and Edith didn't say anything.

Gru decided that he would end this conversation without another word, and go and talk to Nefario, so he promptly left the tank without another word.

**xxxxx**

"Thanks buddy." Joe said as he clutched a brown paper bag filled with a couple of bottles of soy milk, some dairy free cheese and some dairy free yoghurt for Holly to give to Gru. Suddenly there was a distant rumble and some of the bottles of whiskey behind the counter started to shake and clanged against each other, and Joe felt uneasy. The shopkeeper scrambled to hold the bottles in place. Car alarms started wailing outside and Joe and the shopkeeper shared a look of disconcert. An earthquake had never happened here before, and Joe assumed that's what it might be.

The rumbling and shaking gradually subsided and Joe ran to the exit to check on Holly.

Stepping out of the store, Joe saw nothing but road traffic chaos.

"What the heck?" he guffawed, looking as flabbergasted people pointed down the road.

There were police sirens sounding off in the distance and Joe saw a huge haze of smoke just up the road, and a smoke trail leading a few hundred feet into the air then levelling off and heading north. Joe looked at his car and his little girl, in the front seat, was squashed up at the windscreen in awe.

"Hey, Holly, what the hell happened?" Joe asked in mild confusion, and her face turned to look at him with her mouth wide. She snapped out of her mind blown daze.

"There was this big thing! It like… exploded or something." She said frantically, pointing to the sky and moving her arms around wildly, attempting to recreate what she saw.

"Exploded?" Joe said as he looked back at the smoke. His mind flashed a few scenarios. Terrorist attack? Gas explosion? What else could have caused this?

"It was silver and it was so fast! I've never seen anything do that!" Holly was awestruck, and she flopped back in her seat and exhaled in amazement, still staring at Joe with her mouth open. Her blonde hair covered half of her face.

"Huh… I wonder…" Joe thought quietly. He glanced in the direction of the smoke again and Holly followed his gaze.

"Wonder what daddy?" she said quietly, her mind working overtime on how amazing the sight was.

"Umm… nothing. Just… I wonder." Joe mumbled, clasping his ear.

The traffic hadn't seemed to have moved a lot from what Joe could see, so he stood at the car for a moment and considered taking Holly home. She would have been hugely disappointed not being able to visit Agnes, but if he couldn't get her to school then what else could he do? A policeman happened to walk around the corner from the store and Joe ran over to him.

"Hey buddy… whats the news? I gotta get my kid to school." Joe asked the distracted policeman as he started setting up cones.

"I've got a lot to do sir, please call the department if you have any queries." The policeman replied ignorantly without looking up.

"Come on man, is this traffic going to move or not. That's all I'm asking." Joe said frustratedly. The policeman shrugged.

"Look, I'm here to sort that out sir. I'll have the traffic moving soon. Now please return to your vehicle."

"Any idea how long it'll take to get to West Fields School?"

"About an hour. Now please, return to your vehicle." And the policeman left it at that. Joe regarded the policeman with a little contempt. He had never met a policeman before that had ever been helpful.

"Not exactly altering the trend any time soon." He muttered to himself.

"Excuse me?" The policeman said suddenly and made Joe jump.

"Uh nothing, just… thinking out loud." Joe said, abashed, and the policeman gave him an odd look and returned to his duties setting up cones.

Joe returned to his car and put his keys in the ignition. He turned the starter motor and the car chugged into life, barely.

"That's a good girl." Joe said affectionately, patting the dashboard like you would a dog that had been obedient and well behaved.

"So what's going on?" asked Holly.

"That cop is gonna start moving traffic soon, and he said we'll be at school in an hour or so, once they get traffic moving." Joe murmured, looking at the slowly dissipating trail of smoke leading off into the distance.

"Aww, that's too long. I wanna see Agnes now." Huffed Holly as she flopped into her seat and stared out of the window in contempt, huffing loudly. She crossed her arms and pouted.

"Hey, calm it missy." Joe ordered, looking at her in the rear view mirror. She poked her tongue out at him playfully and Joe put the car in gear and began to drive out of the parking lot.

Holly busied herself with a piece of paper she found, folding it into random shapes.

"What have you done, Mr Gru?" Joe thought to himself as he joined the queue of cars, looking up at the sky.

**xxxxx**

Gru re-entered the tank after about 20 minutes outside, thinking deeply and also talking with Nefario about what had happened, for a couple of minutes. Nefario mentioned a few things that he would explain in more detail when Gru returned from the school run, and that he also had good news as well, and that it should perhaps cheer Gru up.

"The engine will have been cooled enough by now I think gurls." Gru announced authoritatively. In situations like these, Gru had no clue what to do and usually resorted to being factual and to the point. He didn't really understand how to emotionally respond to people, despite having two months of hard practice with the girls. He did in some cases however, but he had never had to explain to three terrified children that his tank had just launched itself to escape someone following him, so he was unable to think of something decent to say.

"Nefario said the launch caused a large traffic jam as police and ambulances checked what happened, so Agnes won't be late. You and Edith will be, but I have notified your teachers dat we are stuck in de jam." He said, closing the door behind him. He clasped his hands together, looking at them meekly.

"Leesten, shall we all go to Sharky's Pizza lator?" he said attempting to sound cheerful. Agnes looked up and seemed to perk up. Margo and Edith still didn't look at him. "Agnes's friend is coming over lator for deener, so I thought we could go."

"None of my friends have ever been allowed over." Edith cut in. Gru eyed her for a second, his choler rising slightly at her comment.

"Well, yoo nevor asked them to veeset." Gru answered.

"You would say no, so what's the point?" Edith huffed angrily. Gru closed his hands into fists.

"You haven't asked, so you don't know." He said with his impatience rising. "The seetuation we are in is far more important than your friends veeseting." Edith did not seem satisfied with this.

"So why is _Agnes's_ friend visiting later then?" Margo interrupted with sass.

"Because her teachor forced me to let hur, so Agnes would stop asking her to ask me. OK?" Agnes's face dropped and she started to snivel.

"So, she's not visiting because you like her?" She asked sadly, and Margo gave Gru a disapproving look.

"No, no honey. I deedent meen it like dat." Gru stuttered, trying to dig himself out of the hole he had made. Agnes burst into tears. "Eet was just yoor teachor. She asked me to let her visit, dats all." Gru stuttered, trying to stop her crying.

Agnes's grizzling stopped for a second and she looked at Gru, and then cried louder. Margo put her arm round her little sister and pulled her in for a small hug.

"Don't worry Agnes. We will like Holly." Margo comforted her, giving Gru a bitter look as she patted Agnes. Agnes rubbed her tear streamed eyes and looked at Margo.

"Promise?" she blubbed hopefully. Gru watched them and felt like his abilities as a father were slipping away slowly, but surely.

"Promise."

"Yeah. I'll show her the BIG spider in the back yard." Edith said excitedly, and Agnes smiled.

Gru gave up on trying to converse with them and climbed up the ladder to the cockpit and sat down, tired, despondent and ashamed of himself. Did he really believe the girls were becoming bored or unhappy living with him? So much had happened in the last few weeks, with the pressures of trying to get the anti gravity antidote working, Edith suddenly turning from a chirpy little girl into a miserable one, Margo becoming massively sassy and returning to her protective older sister mindset, and the black car and the hacking. It all seemed to creep up on him. He decided the best thing to do was to get the girls to school and think things over at home, alone. He thumbed a switch on the console, and the screens flickered to life. A dull hum kicked in, and Gru breathed out pensively.

"_Recalibrating engine mapping. Please wait."_ The monotone robot announcer chirped.

Gru felt a small tug of his scarf and glanced down at the disturbance. Agnes was just behind him sitting down, and she looked down at her feet.

"Yes, honey?" Gru asked warmly, snapping out of his moment of deep thought.

"Dad… can I sit with you?" she asked shyly.

"Of course you can." Gru said, patting her head.

"_Engine recalibration complete_."

"I am scared." Agnes admitted quietly. "I don't wanna be followed. Margo said you'll protect us though."

"I won't let eet happen anymore." Gru said with conviction. "And yes… I weel; protect yoo. All of you. No matter what."

He decided that the next time he saw the car, there would be a confrontation.

**xxxxx**

Joe parked up in the school parking lot and stretched his back before moving to Holly's door. He had been in traffic for about 45 minutes, and the fact that his car seats were lumpy and a broken spring dug into his left buttock didn't make the journey any nicer. He preferred short, quick journeys that didn't need to leave the engine running for too long, the cam-belt was on its way out judging by the engines incessant screeching every time he pressed the throttle pedal.

He opened up the door and Holly hopped out and breathed in some nice fresh air. All the windows were supposed to say shut as the smoke left behind by whatever had happened was potentially toxic. She stretched her legs mimicking her father and she smiled as Gru's giant large silver vehicle turned the corner.

Joe watched as several parents looked at it with disdain, the tank had ruined several cars over the past few weeks with Gru's terrible parking. Joe saw the engine outlets were black and smoky and the metal looked a little warped. The tank car thing had never looked like that before, and Joe's suspicions were confirmed. The smoke _was _because of Gru. He understood very little about rocketry, but black sooty outlets and warped metal were a good sign of an afterburner firing. The chaos Gru had left in his wake was huge, and it was only just now, just over an hour after the occurrence, started to calm down. Joe thought they were lucky to be at school at all.

He wandered over to the tank car with his groceries and saw Gru climbing down from the glass dome and waited by the entrance door. Seconds later, the door slid open, and a bespectacled girl was standing there, looking at him with a questioningly raised eyebrow. A sulking pink-hatted girl watched him with a sullen expression.

"Oh… Joe. Eets you." Joe heard a voice say. Gru stepped out of a lift and and walked outside, nearly barging him out of the way.

"Got caught up in traffic too?" Joe asked dismally.

"Yoo coold say dat." Gru huffed, and Joe saw the older girl stare daggers at him.

"I didn't know you had 3 girls." Joe said.

"You never asked."

Joe saw the girl in glasses shoot Gru another annoyed glance and Joe looked at her for a moment, wondering why she was obviously angry with him. It could have been whatever happened… but Joe didn't think it was his place to pry.

"Hi Joe." He heard Agnes shout from the lift seconds later. "Holly here? She's staying over tonight isn't she?" she hopped excitedly.

"Whoa, wait." Gru cut in. "Stayeeng over? I don't theenk so."

Joe saw the little girl's excited smile vanish and replace with a pleading stare and quivering lower lip, and her eyes near doubled in size. Joe looked at them and wanted to just give in to her every whim… they were so big.

"Pretty please?" Agnes asked with the sweetest voice Joe ever heard. He sneaked a look at Gru and saw his staunch face soften immensely, and then tighten again as he regained control of himself.

"I don't theenk Joe has brought anytheeng with him anyway." Gru said tiredly, looking up to the sky in despair.

"Actually," Joe interjected "I did bring a change of clothes and her toiletries just in case."

Joe saw the little girl grin at Gru and Joe smiled inwardly, he wanted to get one over on Gru for no apparent reason. Gru gave Joe a very disapproving look, until the man had no argument left in him.

"Fine." Was all Gru could manage to say.

"Yay!" Joe heard Holly and Agnes screech in excitement. He didn't realise Holly had been behind him the whole time.

"Oh… I haven't introduced myself." Joe said in realisation, looking at Margo. He held out his hand to her, which she backed away from ever so slightly. "My name is Joe. Nice to meet you…."

"Oh," she said, now aware of why his hand had extended to her. "Margo."

She shook his hand politely. "The girl in the hat is my sister, Edith. She never takes it off." Margo smiled.

The girl in the pink hat smiled slightly and waved, which Joe returned. She seemed miserable, actually both her and the older girl did, Joe though. He wondered why, but it wasn't his place. Joe turned to Gru and he faced a scornful man.

"I have here some non-dairy products as Holly has the L.I." Joe said to Gru, dumping a paper bag on him. Gru scrambled to grasp it, nearly dropping its contents. He shot Joe another look of anger and nodded, and looked at the groceries with disgust as if they may be covered in germs.

"She needs to be in bed by 8. I trust you have your own guest beds or a spare mattress or whatever for her. Anyway sweetie! Daddy's gotta go. Love you honey! Have fun! Be good!"

Joe gave her a warm hug and Holly planted a big smacking kiss on his cheek and Joe wandered off to his car. He started thinking about things he had seen. He realised that after only 2 weeks at a school many parents wouldn't dream of letting their daughter sleep over at another mans house, but he felt relaxed.

Agnes always seemed happy and upbeat, and was always clean and healthy looking. The fact that Gru had other daughters that were older settled his mind better. He still wondered how a man like Gru ever ended up with a daughter, let alone 3. The man was silent and kept himself to himself after school. If he ever stepped into the school building, it was to collect something or to find Agnes if she didn't come out in time. He never spoke to other parents, and he barely wanted to talk to Joe either, even though Joe tried. If the man wasn't married… just why did he have 3 daughters?

Joe decided that moment he was going to find out. He would make Gru talk.

**xxxxx**

Gru watched the car drive off in a puff of black smoke and a spluttering exhaust and sighed. "Right… you two get to school now. I have to take Margo and Edith to theirs."

Holly waved to Gru and trotted over to the entrance, and Agnes hugged him in a rush, and ran after Holly.

Gru turned back to the tank and Margo was still giving him a fierce look. Gru raised his eyebrow as he stopped. She was blocking his way.

"I'm inviting over Mellissa next week." She said bluntly. Gru slumped a little and opened his mouth to speak. "And Edith is going to bring a friend of hers over soon too."

"You think so?" said Gru nonchalantly. "I don't know Melleessa."

"You hardly know Joe or his daughter. It's been two weeks, right?" Margo pointed out cleverly. Gru hated her smarts; it was so hard to counter her arguments. Especially since she was a child, it made it all the more difficult. She was not a child you could make up stories to for whatever reason. She saw right through them, and her logic was faultless.

"I don't know Margo." Gru sighed, holding the bridge of his nose.

"Actually, _I do_. Its only fair, _right_?" She said sourly. Gru just needed sleep, and he gave up on continuing this bickering match.

"We weell see. Now pleese, out of de way or you will both be lator dan I told yor teechurs and might get detention."

Margo stepped aside satisfied and it was as if she had permittedhis entry, and he clambered back into the car.

Moments later the girls jumped out of the tank and made their way to the school reception. Neither of them looked back or said goodbye. Gru didn't even bother to step down from the cockpit either. He was not interested in playing mind games, which he no doubt thought would have happened.

**xxxxx**

Edith sat at her desk bored out of her mind. Her teacher, Mr Donahue, was droning on about her times tables, and how 8 times 8 was 64, and 9 times 9 was 81. Edith knew most of this already. Her and her sister Margo were very smart for their age. Edith just never applied herself; she found ickiness and gross things far more interesting than how numbers worked.

"Edith!" Mr Donahue shouted out of nowhere, making her jump. "Pay attention."

"Sorry Mr Donahue." She replied nonchalantly.

Mr Donahue was the male equivalent of Miss Hattie in Edith's eyes. He had a small head with a large body. His hair was balding and very short, though she pictured him having a hairstyle similar to Miss Hattie's if he ever gave her grief and that usually cheered her up. The man had fat stubby hands and tiny little legs, and his voice was raspy. His suit and tie barely hung onto his fat stomach.

He was good natured, though very strict and sometimes unfair. But he always put the children's learning before anything else. He had a tendency to pick on Edith, which she hated. She didn't know it was because he saw she was a very smart child and her ignorance and tendency to let her mind wander was frustrating. He didn't care if she hated him for it, though.

"Good. Now, what is twelve times thirty four since you seem to know your times tables to not need to pay attention." He asked with a smarmy smile. The class looked at her, some smiling like their teacher, some whispering amongst themselves.

"Four hundred and eight." She replied immediately with indignation. "Sir." She added for effect.

Some of the children in the class giggled at her, thinking she had gotten the sum wrong.

"That's correct. Well done." Mr Donahue said confidently. "Lets try something more difficult now. What is fifty four times one hundred and twenty three?"

"Six thousand…" she paused to ponder for a second, tapping her chin with her finger. "Six hundred and forty two."

The class begun to whisper a little more excitedly now and Edith felt a little surge of pride.

"Excellent Edith. You may have a gold star, but please pay attention in future." And he resumed writing on the white board.

Edith collected the gold star from her teachers desk and she put it in her workbook on today's page. It glistened for a second and she saw her reflection in it. She closed the book rapidly, as if the reflection was a sight to be avoided.

A dark haired girl caught Edith's eye, and Edith looked away sharply, and resumed her daydreaming.

A small tug on Edith's shoulder snapped her back to reality and she looked to a boy next to her. "Clarissa wants me to give you this" he whispered quietly underneath his clasped hand, and he passed her a note with his other.

Edith opened it up and it read "Teachers Pet!" She glanced over to the dark haired girl and frowned to herself, as the girl smiled smugly. The bell rang for lunch, and Edith could only despair further.

"That's all for now class. See you after lunch. Oh, Edith? Come here please." The teacher spoke out above the hubbub of children tidying away their things. The dark haired girl grinned sarcastically at Edith and she ignored it, and plodded over to her teachers desk.

He waited for the class to empty and then he sat down. He sipped a small glass of water, his fat fingers were barely able to wrap around it.

Edith waited in the silence, as the teacher looked her up and down. He yawned and took out a pad from under his desk and read it for a moment. Edith glanced around the room, waiting.

"Edith." He said, getting straight to the point. "You haven't been paying attention in class these last couple of weeks."

Edith didn't answer. She didn't need to, he was stating the obvious and she hadn't much to say back to him. He waited for her to answer and she didn't.

"Well… I know something is on your mind." He continued. "I know my students quite well. As far as you know you think you don't show a lot of emotion but I see it. What's the matter?"

Edith again didn't say anything but stared at him blankly. Mr Donahue looked at her with impatience.

"Edith, if you don't tell me what is wrong, I can't help you."

She sighed, but didn't say anything.

"Fine. If you won't talk about it, I will have to talk to your guardian about it." He said plainly.

"He won't do anything anyway, so tell him what you want. Can I go now please?" she said impatiently.

Mr Donahue looked at her in annoyance. She saw him write something down in his pad, but she didn't care what he wrote. Normally she would have been desperate to read things in a situation like this (such as when Miss Hattie would jot random things down, Edith was desperate to see what she wrote and if it related to her) but most of her gusto had left her today. She was reserved to just let things happen as they did.

"Very well. This won't be the last of our conversation." He disclosed, gesturing to the door. "Off you go."

Edith nodded almost like a soldier would to a superior officer, and marched out of the room. Mr Donahue looked out of the window to the playground and rubbed his eyes in tiredness, and occupied himself by reading through Edith's schoolwork.

**xxxxx**

"See you in a minute Edith." Her friend Jenny shouted, running down the hall to grab her bag.

Edith walked to the playground doors and squinted as she opened them. The sun was bright and the outside temperature was sweltering. She stood there for a moment as she considered what to do with the rest of her break.

Usually, Edith would sit down on a bench with her friend Alfie and Jenny, or try and find a place to hide herself away from Clarissa. After the little note in class, Edith assumed today was going to be a day of the latter.

She wandered off to a small part of the school where children did not really go. It was peaceful and it let her have time to herself and think. She sat there for a few minutes with her eyes closed and she a shadow fall on her.

"Hey Jenny I-" she stopped, opening her eyes. It wasn't Jenny.

"Hey Hat-face." Said a dark haired girl, who was standing with 3 other girls and one boy. They chuckled.

"Oh… Hi Clarissa." Edith replied quietly.

Clarissa stood over Edith dominantly, and her smug, podgy face was regarding Edith with contempt. She had a pink hair band that tied her hair into pigtails. Her brown eyes gazed at Edith with intent, and she smirked.

"How's the little orphan girl today?" Another girl asked, which prompted some mocking laughs.

"I am fine." Edith bit. Edith held her hat and pulled it down slightly, covering half of her eyes, as she often did when she felt uncomfortable and wanting to hide.

"Say…" began the boy, "when do you think her old man of a "dad" is gonna kick the bucket?" and he imitated an old man struggling with a walking stick.

They all laughed, though Edith said nothing.

"Whats the mater pipsqueak, cat got your tongue?" Clarissa asked.

"Leave me alone." Edith huffed, despite knowing that they would not leave her alone.

"No. Make us." Another girl chided, and Edith breathed a long sigh.

"Just leave me alone, all of you." She wanted to walk away, but they surrounded her in a wide circle and she was sitting with her back against the fence, and she thought they would push her around if she tried to pass them.

"I bet I know why she's an orphan." Clarissa whispered loudly to the red haired girl next to her, smiling darkly.

"Because she's ugly!" the children burst out laughing and Edith felt her resolve waver a little more.

"Yeah… what kind of freak adopts a kid that's so ugly?" the boy laughed. Jenny had just arrived by this point.

"Hey!" Leave her alone!" she shouted, moving in front of the sitting form of Edith and her bullies.

Jenny stood staunchly in front of her friend, offering her a small shield.

"Its OK Jen… I' m fine." Edith lied.

"No she's not. Her dad is old and he's gonna die soon. Then she'll be an orphan again and no one will want her." Clarissa mocked. Edith welled up, and did her best to hide it. Better to not give them another reason to pick on her.

"Yeah." Agreed the boy. "He gave her back once remember? He never wanted her ever! I bet he doesn't now."

Edith began to cry quietly at this, and Jenny pulled her up from sitting and held her close.

"I'll go tell the teachers!" Jenny barked, while Edith tried hard to swallow her cries. The children laughed.

"My dad's on the PTA, idiot. They won't do anything." Clarissa smirked.

"Yeah… no one likes Edith and no one loves her." The boy added. "They won't help her."

"I heard her four eyed sister has a crush on my older brother." One girl giggled.

"Yeah right like that's going to happen… she's way too ugly for him!" the boy chuckled.

"Her dad is funny lookin'." Said the 3rd girl ,who hadn't spoken a word so far. "Seen his nose?"

"Yeah, he looks like a scarecrow." Clarissa agreed. "Edith's ugly with an ugly pretend dad."

"My dad said I shouldn't talk to him because he said that the man was dangerous and probably likes to hurt kids." The red haired girl joked.

'Haha yeah. I bet he eats kids. I bet he will eat the four eyed freak first, as she's the biggest with the most meat on her" the boy said, pointing to his gut and arms and smacking his lips.

"Leave them alone!" Edith shouted, squaring up to confront them. Clarissa stopped laughing and stared at Edith. Her friends moved in closer and the mood was suddenly very tense. Jenny looked at the 5 aggressors and then to Edith.

"Oh yeah? What if I don't?" Clarissa said, moving closer to Edith. Edith became suddenly very aware of herself, and she shrank back, fearful of getting into a fight.

"Teachers coming!" the boy said, startled. The 5 kids all scattered leaving a bewildered Jenny and a very emotionally wounded Edith standing there alone.

"Come on Edith… we need to tell a teacher." Jenny said kindly, propping a quietly weeping Edith against her.

"They won't do anything." Edith muttered aggressively, choking back more tears. "Neither will Gru, before you say anything."

Jenny closed her mouth for a second and looked for another option. "Tell Margo then."

"No. I don't wanna tell anyone. I'll just make their lives bad." Jenny looked at Edith's tear covered face and felt sorry for her deeply.

"Miss Hattie used to say people wouldn't want me because I had too many problems." Edith mentioned quietly, although not to Jenny, more to herself.

"You don't know why your parents gave you away do you?" Jenny asked as they trudged towards the school entrance. Edith opened her mouth to answer, but a large shadow fell over them and they stopped in their tracks.

"Is everything OK girls?" said the teacher that the male bully indicated moments ago. She was standing behind the sun and the two girls could only make out her outline.

"Oh… yeah Miss. I just got something stuck in my eye." Edith lied, trying to sound cheerful. She rubbed her eye to try and convince her.

"Hmm… OK. Carry on." Said the teacher before hurryingly moving to a crowd of arguing boys over a stick one of them found.

"Phew." Edith said, sounding a little more upbeat. "I was only 4, I don't remember. Miss Hattie said it was because no one liked me or my sisters, and no one would adopt us."

"That's not true Edith. Gru adopted you, didn't he?" Jenny pointed out, hoping this might perhaps cheer Edith up a little.

"Hah. Gru? He spends all of his time doting over Agnes." Edith said sourly.

"Hey Edith! Wanna play ball?" a ginger boy asked randomly them as they passed their crowd. Edith blanked him.

"No thanks Tim!" Jenny answered for her.

They walked into the school building to the library. Lunch had around 20 minutes to go, and the girls decided to go there.

"Edith, my big sister Sarah tells me if I ever worry I should talk to someone." Jenny said quietly as they found a table. "So I usually talk to her or my mom."

"I talk to Margo plenty." Edith huffed, plainly no longer interested in talking.

"You can talk to me!" Jenny exclaimed as though this thought had never occurred to her before and the idea was spectacular. Edith gazed at her expressionlessly; her friend could be quite ditzy at times.

"I do." She murmured.

"I know, but… more." She pressed, hoping to overcome Edith's reluctance to talk.

"Nah, lets just read before lunch is over and you get me kicked out again for shouting too much." Edith smiled a little.

"Ooooh a smile!" Jenny laughed, and Edith joined in, cheering up a bit.

They both sat down and flicked through two very girly magazines that Jenny had found, and Edith secretly wanted to swap hers for one about bugs and other icky things.

**xxxxx**

"Well, we have managed to halt any incoming hacking attempts." Nefario grunted. He stood over Gru's desk proudly, his hands behind his back. Gru rubbed his forehead and read the clipboard he had been handed literally milliseconds after walking into the lab. "Or… they have stopped."

"Dat ees good news." Gru sighed. Nefario had expected a bit more excitement from his colleague, but Gru was not in the frame of mind.

"Yes. The car however, continues to follow you."

"I know. It got very close today and acteevated de TEP, on my tank." Gru barked. Nefario stood there for a moment, slightly confused. "Threat Escape Protocol, Nefario."

"Ah! Yes." Gru's brow creased into a frown, Nefario's senility seemed to be getting a little worse. Or it could bet that Gru was much more sensitive to irritancies today. He couldn't work out which. "Well, the car has never come that close to you before. The spybot I have been using to follow it has led me to discover they usually sit 300 metres from you. They follow your smoke trail."

Gru sat up and gazed at Nefario indignantly. "But yoo told me to keep the car aftor I asked eef eet was worth getting reed of for sometheeng discreet."

"Yes, but remember I also said that there was no point now since they already know where you live, and where the girls go to school. So they would just monitor those areas and you'd be spotted easily. You don't exactly blend in, Gru."

Gru hit his forehead his desk defeatedly. He knew there was little point in changing what he wore or drove now, as they knew the patterns he followed and the locations he frequented.

"We should just wait it out and see what they do." Nefario said calmly.

"What eef dey eentend harm?" Gru asked pointedly.

"I'm sure after following you for 5 weeks they would have taken an opportunity by now."

"OK. Well, eets time I went to bed, I have a couple of hours rest before I peeck de gorls up. I need sleep." Gru went to stand up but Nefario stood perfectly still, waiting. "What?"

"Well… I need you to give me more blood." Gru's face dropped.

"Absolutely NOT!" Gru exclaimed in panic, and Nefario smiled. Gru's exhaustion was gone, replaced with a rapidly beating heart and thoughts of huge shiny needles.

"I'm just joking. I want to show you something." He gestured to Gru to follow him, and Gru huffed, his face creased into a stroppy pout. Gru hated jokes, especially against him.

Nefario led Gru on a perhaps unnecessarily long walk through the lair to a small area Gru had totally forgot about since he had it built. Nefario stood by a door and turned to face Gru.

"You will like this." He said with a chuckle, and opened it.

They both stepped inside and Gru was met with the sight of 9 minions sitting on the floor. A few of them had a poker game going on, and some others were drawing pictures with crayons. Gru glanced at them all and they all looked at him.

"Meenions? What ees dis?" Gru asked somewhat confused.

"Not just any minions." Nefario said, pointing to one. This minion was pink. Gru regarded the minion for a second, and his eyes opened wide.

"Wait. Ees dat… Paul?" Gru turned Nefario excitedly, and he could feel a little bit of villainous glee well up inside his gut. The minion nodded at the same time as Nefario, and the minion had a look of smugness about him.

"Yes. I went to get him, and it turned out mixing your blood with the same antidote I gave him was the perfect match and the antidote works. I administered it to the others." Nefario said proudly.

"Although, I have removed the pink dye from the mixture." He added with a little amusement.

"Dees is porfect! We can do de heist now!" Gru exclaimed, hugging the bewildered Nefario. The minions cheered and pulled out random weapons from seemingly infinitely deep pockets and waved them around like giant trophies.

"I thought we decided to cancel the heist, because of our little problem." Nefario pointed out above the din.

"Well," Gru pondered "eef they know our capabilities and my patterns, they won't be able to break into my lab when I am away anyway. I say we do it. To hell with discretion."

Nefario smiled. "That's more like it!" and he added his claps to the applause, as more minions poured into the room cheering. No longer interested in sleeping, Gru decided to let off some steam in the weapons testing area with his five favourite minions, Tim, Mark, Jerry, Stuart and Phil.

**xxxxx**

**Authors Notes**

**This chapter took me a while to write. I changed it a few times, once was pretty much from scratch. I've noticed my writing has improved a bit as well, including the layout and thats why I've made some changes. This chapter wasn't as long as I expected, I decided that the second half of "Friday" would be better as a separate chapter since cramming over 14,000 words into one chapter might be a bit too much.**

**Plus, some parts either got a bit silly or heavy, so I toned it down a bit. Its very hard to write Edith... the classroom scene and the playground bit were tough especially.**

**Still! The story is starting to flow now, I've gotten some of chapter 6 written. I'm quite liking where this is going, the twist is on its way!**

**And to Westerncat: Thank you very much for the review ^.^! I'll do my best to keep the awesomeness up.**


	7. Chapter 6: Not So Careful Planning

**Chapter 6**

**Not So Careful Planning**

KABOOM!

A bright lash of light and a tinny metal echo rang through the gigantic long dark chamber. Its titanium walls glowed orange and yellow momentarily, until the flare of the distant explosion died down.

Gru and 5 of his minions were entertaining themselves in the way they knew best, firing off random weapons in the testing area. Gru posed for a second like a coyboy, putting the weapon into a small hidden pocket, smiling gleefully at the minions.

"Wooohaa!" 2 of the minions cheered, whole the other three struggled with a particularly large metal tube. The tube had an odd green glow emanating from one end, and they aimed it down the chamber.

"Put eet on to power level three, I want to see dis!" Gru shouted with child like giddiness.

"Power a colpa?" a slightly taller minion asked.

"No Mark, level three." Gru wagged a finger.

"Aww. Ok." The minion agreed, if a little belligerently. He flicked a switch, and the weapon extended into a mass of metal prongs. Each prong had a glowing red orb on the end, and small particles of energy began to collect around them. The green glow began to become brighter until the weapon created something that looked like a small green sun.

Gru watched his weapon creating its deadly projectile with pride, and held his hands over his ears. The energy ball was making little sparks of electricity shoot off of it in random directions, and the deep throbbing hum it emanated got louder and louder as the ball increased with size.

In an instant, the weapon fired. The shriek and crackling noise the energy ball emitted as it made its way downrange was piercingly loud.

"Wait for eeeeeet…" Gru shouted above the noise. The minions huddled together in waiting, as the tension rose.

Nothing happened.

"What?" Gru and the minions asked in unison. They waited. Still nothing.

There was no bright green flash of light, no distant concussive boom, and no excitement.

"Well… dat was an antee climax huh."

"Weapon na good, boss?" a sarcastically posed Tim asked with half closed eyes.

"Well, Nefario doesn't make everything perfect." Gru said looking at the oversized weapon laying on the floor. Its energy prongs had receded back inside it and it now looked nothing more than a metal tube with a handle stuck to it.

"Mek we go get da bomba!" shouted Phil, a short, slightly fatter minion. This one usually smiled all of the time, and he gestured to a odd looking pointed canister.

"No, I theenk we should call eet a day. Its 1.30 PM. Nefario wants to plan de heist. All of you follow me." Gru replied with authority. The minions tensed up and began to act serious.

"Yes boss!" They all saluted. Their sudden change in demeanour whenever Gru mentioned the word heist amused him a little, since they became almost single minded and and their individual personalities vanished and were replaced with similar dastardly glee.

"No need Gru." Nefario coughed behind them.

"Ah Dr Nefario. I didn't hear you come in." Gru eyed the gigantic blast door behind Nefario, which he was sure was shut just moments ago. Nefario had this penchant for just turning up silently, almost in cartoon fashion regardless of Gru's whereabouts. Perhaps Gru just never paid attention all that much.

"Quite. Anyway, I have the serum here. I want you to try it."

He held up a bottle of bright yellow liquid, and Gru looked at it carefully. He gulped.

"Are you sure eet weel work on humans?" Gru asked nervously.

"No. But that's why I am here." Nefario stated bluntly. "Your blood was a catalyst for the antidote, the iron contained in human blood reacted with the chemicals I used and that is what allows the antidote to restore gravitational effect."

Gru pondered for a second. "So how does it work then?"

The minions listened intently, and two were fighting to get a "front row seat", despite the size of the room.

Nefario smiled and straightened up smugly. "Well, gravity is almost like a magnet you see. You are affected as everyone else is. Without getting too detailed or technical," he paused and pulled out a piece of candy and flicked it up in the air, which then fell down to the ground. "what I did was create a chemical that reverses your gravitational polarisation. Instead of being affected by it, you are not."

Gru smiled slightly, drinking in the information. Jerry, one of the minions, jumped to the broken sweet and shoved it in his mouth, giggling a little shyly as Nefario gave him a look of irritation.

He looked back at Gru and continued. "The iron in your blood allowed me to reverse the polarisation and you will be affected by gravity again." Nefario added. "Its all very complicated. Just be happy that it works, not how it works."

Gru nodded, and grabbed the bottle carefully.

"You must drink it all in one go. Here, take this personal direction device." Nefario handed him a small hand held fan. Gru took it and his face screwed up in bafflement.

"Personal direction device?" Gru asked, bemused. "Dis is a fan."

"Yes it is." Nefario said ardently. "It will allow you to move around silently. Took me a while to perfect it."

"Nefario," Gru said listlessly, "I could have bought this in a store for less than a dollar."

"Ah. Well, I'd better not tell you how much it cost me to design then." Nefario muttered.

"Nefario, money is tight as eet ees!" Gru huffed, abraded further by Nefario's innocent incompetence. "Dats why we are doing dis heist."

"And not because you want to." Nefario remarked obtusely. Gru lost his mental footing.

"Well…" he faltered. "Just because of the black car, Margo theenks I am putting de gorls in danger and she wants me to stop." He scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. The minions continued to listen in intently. One had gotten slightly bored, and he kept eyeing the stack of weapons behind them intently.

"I don't want her to know about this heist Nefario. I need de money so I have no choice. But she won't understand."

"Well, it is your choice. Though I doubt you will find much use for me outside of villainy, Gru." Nefario said bitterly. Gru acknowledged this dismally. "Anyway. On with the test, yes?"

"Right."

Gru held the concoction up to his face for a few seconds. The minions, now fully alart all watched him with anticipation. Gru held up the bottle to Nefario and toasted.

"To de heist." Gru said starkly.

"Indeed." Nefario replied, his posture stiff as always and face devoid of emotion.

He gulped. Nefario lurched ever so slightly, and the minions whimpered and chewed their glove covered fingers in apprehension. Gru smacked his lips.

"Tastes better than I expected." He admitted calmly. "Ohh… dat ees a weird feeling."

Gru felt butterflies in his stomach, and his clothes suddenly weighed more than he had noticed before. His feet and hands felt almost hollow, and his head feathery light.

"Oh boy… now dis _ees weird_." Gru bellowed as he began to float off of the ground. Nefario watched silently, and the minions cooed in awe.

"Haha! Eets working!" He ceebrated and began to turn in circles in the air on joy. "Eets like sweemeeng in air!'

He breast stroked through the air but didn't move. He imitated birds and aeroplanes, all of his adulthood left him and was replaced with child like indulgence. The minions cheered and Nefario nodded to his achievement.

"Dees is better than floateeing een space!" Gru wailed, and chuckled incessantly. He floated further upwards, and was aware just how tall the testing chamber was. It was at least 70 feet high Gru guessed, and the small forms of Nefario and the yellow minions looked up at him from below. He touched the cold roof of the chamber, feeling as he did when he clasped the moon. Like he had achieved something great.

"Uh… Nefario?" Gru called out loudly through his hands cupped around his mount, suddenly aware of something. "How am I going to get down without dee antidote?"

Nefario's mouth fell open and he was stupefied.

"Uhh…" He whispered quietly to himself, sharing a look with similarly shocked minions. "I don't know." He shouted back.

"Yoo don't know?" Gru shrieked. "What do yoo mean you _DON'T KNOW!_"

"Nefario. Usa le maka bout!" said Jerry holding his hand up to mimick Gru holding a fan.

"Ah yes, how silly of me." Nefario sighed. He clasped his hands around his mouth. "Gru! Use the personal direction device to push yourself back down here!"

"Daw... of course." Gru slapped his forehead. He pulled out the little metal fan, one which cost a huge amount of money to "invent", and switched it on. He aimed it like a pistol towards the roof and began to fly slowly to the ground. Jerry and Phil were giggling at Gru as his sour face came into view.

"Give me the anteedote." Gru said impatiently as he floated about 4 feet off of the ground. Nefario handed him a flask of blue liquid and Gru snatched it as he started to float away again.

"Dis won't tourn me bloo, weell eet?" Gru asked sarcastically.

"I am not sure. But if you want to be floating around for the rest of your life… be my guest." Nefario said without concern. Gru sighed.

Gru gulped it and tumbled to the floor with a deep thud. Nefario and the minions cringed.

"Ow… dat hort." Gru wheezed and a couple of the minions helped him up. He stretched this way and that, clicking his back a couple of times.

"Now we know it works, lets move on and plan this theft." Nefario marched to the door hurriedly and Gru and the minions casually followed him.

"Hey boss." Said Stuart, a slightly podgy minion with spiky hair.

"What?" Gru said, looking down at him.

"Big steel. Big fun! Maka jumla moneys!"

"Yes we will." Said Gru, wringing his hands together in glee. "Lots of money."

**xxxxx**

"We will enter through here." Gru said to the 5 minions, who were sitting at a small meeting table. He had a pointing rod and was standing next to a large projector screen, and several diagrams and layouts were displayed on it. He pointed to a doorway indicated on a birds eye view map. Gru exerted military commander like power and authority, marching left and right and indicating graphs, maps, layouts and plans.

The minions jotted down his directions fervently.

"Dees door is the least guarded, based on what information the spy-bot Nefario has been using can geeve us, and also stuff from de internet."

Nefario nodded, and he changed a slide on the projector.

"The church isn't heavily guarded around this time of yeer." Gru added, indicating to a blurry photograph of a guard. He didn't look particularly well armed or well trained, but there were at least 15 guards in the building at any one time, which would be more than enough to cause them some trouble if they were caught.

Gru spoke further, occasionally Nefario would cut in and offer a different point of view or idea, and he and Gru would discuss it. The minions weren't really going to do much, except help him set up the laser cutter. Nefario had stolen some plans for a silent invisible laser cutter off the internet and built it. The laser it emitted didn't glow or cause large amounts of melting debris, so there would be very little mess to see. Discretion was key, Gru often said during the planning session.

The fans, while offering them movement, were not particularly powerful and they moved at about 10 miles an hour at best. Which was unfortunately much slower than a bullet. Gru decided the best course of action was to let the ceiling of the chapel fall to the floor.

"One meenion must infiltrate the grownd floor and pick up the shrunken ceiling when eet drops to the floor." Gru barked. "We can't peeck eet up in midair, as wee weell be easy targets for the soldiers."

"The rest of us weell fly to the rendezvous point" Gru pointed to a photograph of an alleyway about 50 metres away. "and dreenk de anteedote. You, Tim, will be the man on de grownd."

He pointed at Tim grimly with his pointing stick.

Tim shrunk back as the other minions stared at him, relieved but also sorrowful for their friend. He whimpered ever so quietly.

"You must meet us there within 5 meenets." Gru added, further freaking out the little minion.

"The alarm will sound as soon as they know what's happened." Nefario included. "You will need to be quick."

"Umm… OK." Tim whined. His face was a mask of fear. He had an important task, perhaps the most important. And the most dangerous.

"Mark and Stuart weell create deestractions to keep the soldiers attention on the sky." Gru added warmly, hoping to settle down his minion. It did, relatively speaking, but also made Mark and Stuart worried as they could quite possibly be fired upon.

"Right. Anyway. Dere are 6 pillars we must cut through, then we can focus on the outside wall." Nefario changed a slide again and the machine whirred.

Gru pointed to a map detailing where they would be cutting. Red circles were drawn around key areas, and the names of each minion were written where they would be based.

"De cutting will take about 1 hour for the pillars, and two hours for the outside wall. We have a 5 hour window before the sun rises." Gru said dimly. The minions noted everything down, and the scratching of their pens echoed in the room small dark room.

"The laser cutter needs to be set up as strips." Nefario pointed out. "Only Gru will be using the hand held part."

The projector changed with another click and a diagram of the laser cutter came up. There were 4 distinct parts to it. The handheld part looked similar in nature to a disk saw, except the disk would be pure invisible energy. The strip cutters looked like fluorescent strip lights, but they were flexible and could be wrapped around objects. These parts would be used on the pillars, and when they switched on, the energy they directed cut inwards and sever the pillars. Another part looked a lot like a bulbous backpack, and this was the battery pack for Gru's handheld device.

The fourth part was strangest of all. This part looked like cloth. It gave off a metallic blue shimmer, and Gru regarded it for a second. "What is this part, Nefario?"

"Ah, that." Nefario nodded. "That is your protective clothing. I will fashion the uniforms out in the next few days, once I have your sizes." He gestured to Gru and the 5 minions.

"Why do we need clothing?" Gru asked, slightly confused.

"I neglected to tell you the lasers are highly radioactive."

Gru and the minions looked at him, their mouths gaping open.

"Great." Gru whined.

"The clothing will protect you fully. It is quite hard to fabricate." Nefario said emptily.

"Its OK for yoo, yoo aren't coming weeth us." Gru exhaled heavily.

"Actually." Nefario began bluntly. "I am."

"What?" Gru gasped in shock. "Yoo never come on a heist!" The minions looked at Nefario with a similar expression as Gru. Bewilderment.

"I know. But the lasers require constant monitoring and calibration." Nefario said, clearing this throat. "I have a portable station that I will set up in the safe house, and monitor it from there."

"Can't a minion do it?" Gru asked.

"Its quite complicated." Nefario said darkly.

"Isn't it always…" Gru sighed glumly.

The room was quiet for a moment as Gru and Nefario stood there, allowing the plan to sink in. The only sound was the whirring fan of the projector.

"Right." Gru said finally. "Study doze slides carefullee, you five. We will reconvene here in three weeks to remind you of de plan, and then we will travel out the next day."

"Boss? Ke en de Margo, et Edith et Agnes treepa?"

Gru's straight and staunch posture vanished, and was replaced with a slump dismay and horror.

"What?" Nefario asked, bemused.

"De gorls."

"Ah." Nefario nodded. "What about them?"

"Eef all of us are owt… who ees going to look after dem?" Gru wondered in irritation.

"No one." Nefario said bluntly. Gru shot him a dark look.

"I will theenk of something." Gru said, relaxing a little.

"Its 2.45 Gru" Nefario said, pointing at his watch.

"OK. Right, minions… Remember to studee de slides. Dismissed!" Gru straightened up and ordered. The minions saluted him and trotted out with a clipboard each as Gru switched the light on.

"What will you do about them?" Nefario asked Gru, who collapsed on a seat at the table for a moment and rubbed his eyes.

"I have one idea. But it was sometheeng I would reelly would have liked to avoid." Gru admitted. He put his hands on his face for a minute, thinking.

He sighed, picked himself up off the seat, and walked desolately towards the lift.

.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

.

**Authors Notes:**

**Lalalala: I agree with you quite a bit about Margo. I thought her attitude may have seemed a bit harsh, but my intentions were to make her revert to similar behaviour she showed during the first few days with Gru in Despicable Me. I watched film a couple of times as I wrote the chapter and often she would pull faces and not say a word, other times she would bite in and say something sassy, usually a little unkind and derogatory towards Gru. It was my intention for readers to to see that in chapter 3, when she sees Edith storms upstairs upset and Gru and Agnes looking totally happy, that Margo began to understand Edith was unhappy and Gru might partly be the cause. So her protective streak kicks in. Plus, since she is overprotective, I hope that later chapters might reveal a little more about her backstory. I found it very hard to write those parts, since a lot of her communication is non verbal, and the way I wrote it makes it seem as though she is being a brat. I will try and tone it down a bit, because I do agree with you for the most part. Hopefully you understand my intentions as the writer now though. :-) I'm glad you are enjoying it so far though!**

**Thanks for the reviews both of you!**


	8. Chapter 7: Deja Vu

**Chapter 7**

**Deja Vu**

The dim reality of Gru needing to dump the girls on someone grated on him. His mind was alive with confused and desperate thoughts, and he drove despondently to Agnes's school. He flatly refused to allow his mother to look after them.

Although she was proud of her son for his adoption, she was still the same woman as ever, and could not resist little barbs and mockeries whenever the chance arose.

Plus, she had her own conflicting ideas of good parenting, which Gru detested. She thought a good parent should let their child run rampant and without supervision to do whatever they wished, much as he had done in his youth. Not because it was good for a child's growth, but because she was a lazy parent for the most part. He also hated her tendency to bring out family photo albums. Not only was his baby bottom on display in nearly every single photo of him under the age of 1 year old, but every other photo was Gru dressed in strange formal wear, frowning at the camera. He felt like he was a pet whenever she showed them to Nefario or the girls, she had hundreds of him dressed in a random selection of costumes and uniforms. Often she would create a backdrop to match whatever she wanted him to wear.

In once instance she made him a toy gun (which he had to admit at the time was cool) and a soldiers uniform, and had him pose as if he was taking aim. This was perhaps the only time he enjoyed himself when she took those pictures, as afterwards he had a toy gun to play with. He still had it laying around, somewhere. He pondered giving it to Edith for a moment, but he assumed she would probably break it and shrugged the thought away.

The worst part about the ordeal was the alternative to his mother. Who else did Gru know?

Gru sighed as he accepted this was his only solution. He would have to ask Joe.

"Joe… that infernal Joe." Gru muttered to himself as he drove. "Why heem? Why not Agnes's teacher or someone else." He said despairingly.

"Because you don't know her, eediot." He answered back to himself in a mocking tone.

"Yes… but she is better dan Joe."

"Good luck getting her to say yes."

"I could brain wash her."

"Shut up."

"No you shut up."

"You have to get Joe too look after de gorls, haha."

"Whatever, eediot."

Gru pursed his lips, instantly realising he was arguing with himself. He was sitting in traffic with his windows open, and he looked down at a red car next to him as a very confused woman looked up at him. She heard everything, and she looked somewhat worried and also lightly amused. Gru quickly turned his view back to the front in embarrassment and sunk into his seat.

He drove on, his mind still on his predicament. If Nefario definitely needed to accompany them, then he had no choice. His frown vanished as he saw the roof of Agnes's school creep into view above the houses.

Parents stopped using the parking lot since Gru always bashed their cars out of the way, and they resorted to using the side streets. When Gru barged those cars out of the way as well, they resorted to parking around side streets and nowhere near the school.

Gru looked out into the school from his lofty position, and sighed. He could see the giddy little form of Agnes chasing the tuft of knotted blonde hair with legs that was Holly around the car park.

When he switched the rocket engine of his car off, it barked and spluttered and drew the attention of the two girls, and they sprinted to his car. Gru regarded Holly from his seat with a little indignation. Her bag was falling apart, and a sock fell out. It was crammed with stuff, no doubt her clothes and pyjamas.

That's right... Gru remembered sulkily, pouting as the thought crept over him like a horrible spider. She was sleeping over. He shivered at the thought. With a big hollow metal clunk, and several ping sounds later, the two overexcited children were in the back seat. Screaming.

"Wow this car is _amazing_!" Holly wailed. Gru winced, her voice was piercing and it rang in his ears.

"I know! Its like a rocket, it launched me and dad and my sisters to this farm thousands of miles away!" Agnes loudly explained with excitement.

The girls chatted for a few moments, and Gru sullenly drove towards Margo and Edith's school.

"Hello Agnes." Gru muttered. "And Holly." He added ignorantly.

"Hi dad!" Agnes climbed onto his back and planted a big kiss on his temple, and Gru smiled gently.

"Hi." Holly said with slight shyness.

"Good day at school?" Gru asked as the car jerkily turned into the road.

"Yeah." Agnes and Holly parroted. "Miss Jones said I was extra good today!" Agnes said with pride and she clapped.

"Well done." Gru smiled to her.

"My dad likes your name, Mr Gru." Holly said out of nowhere.

"Did he." Gru muttered in reply, his mood momentarily darkened.

"Yeah. He likes to call you Gru-some or something." She nattered. "I don't know what it means though."

Gru shrugged and didn't speak, and instead frowned to himself. Agnes looked at them both, and she and Holly shared a little look of awkwardness. The car jarred to a halt and Gru clambered over his seat.

"Both of you wait here. I need to stretch my legs." Gru announced while Holly attempted to avoid his large body squashing her against the window. She glanced at Agnes, and smiled uneasily.

"Wait!" Holly sqeuaked and Gru almost fell down the ladder as he halted himself suddenly.

"What?" he said, pulling himself up so his head was level with hers.

"Here's my dads number." She handed him a little card with a number scribbled on it, which Gru snatched. "He wants you to call him when you get home, so he can tell you about what I am allowed to eat and stuff."

"Fine." Gru mumbled as he stuffed the card into his pocket and clambered down the ladder again.

"Your dad is friendly." Holly mocked, brushing her hair out of her eyes. Holly didn't have her usual pigtails today, and her hair was a mess. Her t-shirt was far too large for her, and the sleeves flopped around as she rubbed her eyes.

"You'll get used to it." Agnes assured her sweetly. "He's a big gruff teddy bear." Agnes wrapped her arms around herself imitating a large hug and Holly giggled.

"Just… don't jump on him." Agnes mentioned quietly and Holly leaned in. "Only I can do that." Holly nodded, taking note. They sat in silence for a couple of moments.

"Wanna play patty cake?" Holly asked with a grin, turning to Agnes with her arms stretched out and hands held open.

"Sure!" Agnes said cheerily.

"Patty cake, patty cake…" they chirruped.

**xxxxx**

"Bye Jenny. See you tomorrow." Edith said by her locker. Jenny was the other end of the hall, and she waved and vanished around the corner. Edith sighed and slammed her locker shut, and locked it gruffly. She thought about what the rest of the day, and the weekend, would bring. She could look forward to two days respite from school, at the very least.

Edith was suddenly harshly barged into her locker head first by a random student, and she yelped. She spun round furiously to confront whoever was responsible, and locked eyes with Clarissa. She looked at Edith with a sly smile, almost daring her to do something. She was with her little posse of 3 other girls and the horrible ugly toad like boy, and Edith looked away instantly, trying to avoid further taunts or a confrontation as they walked on. She heard the five of them giggle as they walked away huddled close together.

"Hey Edith." Margo said from behind her, which made Edith yelp again. Edith flopped her head down and she clenched a fist and gritted her teeth, but breathed in slowly to calm herself down.

"Hi." She answered, sounding tired.

"Hey Edith!" said a girl who Edith failed to notice at first. It was Margo's friend.

"Oh, hi Merry." Edith waved.

"Ready to go? We are kinda late." Margo said, smiling brightly. Her glasses always made her look friendly and welcoming, and Edith started to cheer up just a little.

"Yeah, lets go." She lifted her heavy bag off of the floor and slung it over her shoulder.

"Good day?" Margo asked kindly.

"Yeah, swell." Edith said sarcastically.

"Oh Edith, your emblem is falling off." Margo flicked the emblem on Edith's school jumper and tugged it a little, which made it rip off entirely. "Oops."

"Great, now I'm gonna have to ask Gru to sew it on!" Edith huffed, snatching the badge out of her sisters hand. Margo was surprised, and she and her friend shared a disconcerted look.

The girls began to trot to the exit and Edith walked ahead, stomping her feeta bit.

Margo's friend leaned in and whispered to her. "Geez, what's up with your sister Margo?"

Margo sighed. "I don't know. She's been acting out a lot recently. I'm not sure why, because she snaps at me whenever I try to talk to her." Margo paused as Edith slowed down and picked up a pencil she dropped off of the floor so they wouldn't be heard. When Edith ran to the exit, they stopped and Margo turned to her friend. "I don't think she's totally happy at my guardians place."

"Really?" Merry said, quite surprised. "I thought all 3 of you were really happy."

"Well, yeah." Margo said, sounding unsure. "Well, Gru's a good father and all, but there's just…" Margo trailed off.

"Hey, talk." Merry encouraged as Margo looked to the floor sadly. "You can tell me anything. I'm your best friend, right?"

Margo looked up at her and smiled. "Yeah, I know." She started walking to the exit.

"Not telling me huh?" Merry laughed sarcastically.

"You got the homework right?" Margo pointed at the satchel Merry was carrying. "I'll come around tomorrow after ballet and I'll tell you then. OK?"

"Sure!" Merry smiled and bounced on her feet. "What time?"

"3.30 OK?"

"That's fine. See you!"

Merry trotted off in the other direction and Margo sighed, wondering how much she could reveal. Margo knew she could trust her friend, but there was something odd about telling your best friend your adoptive father is an evil mastermind who has put the 3 of them in danger, and that he ignored Edith.

She wondered if Gru knew he was doing it at all. Edith often put herself in situations where Gru had no choice to give her the attention she craved, but this was usually through her causing chaos or being naughty. The thing is, Gru was patient with Agnes but seemed to lose it very easily with Edith, and Margo wondered why. Neither her nor Edith truly understood Gru, and they often wondered how to approach him. Would a super villain care if you hurt your knee? Or that a boy you had a crush on was mean to you about your glasses? Would Gru ever be proud of them? They had so many questions, and they both were terrified of the answers. Having an adoptive parent was not all sunshine and butterflies. They still needed to get to know each other. Two months is a very short amount of time.

Margo walked up to Edith who was leaning on the wall by the entrance waiting and they headed for the exit, just a couple of turns of the corridor away.

Little did Margo and Edith know Gru's own worries and feelings were not so different from theirs.

**xxxxx**

Gru stood outside for a moment and stretched his arm. He looked around at the parents and children of varying ages. He watched them with interest, taking in the mannerisms and little quirks each little gathering had.

One young and good looking couple had a girl around Edith's age and they held her hand, and swung the girl between them. The girl giggled constantly, and the general aura they gave off was carefree happiness.

Another was a mother who had 3 children, all boys, all unruly. She struggled to keep them under control, and her exasperated moaning and ordering, to get them to calm down, failed miserably. He saw her attempt to get them all into her very small car, and saw how she just got on with it in silence, and Gru assumed she had given up all will to fight them.

Gru watched the families for a couple more seconds, till he was rudely barged by something. He glanced down and looked into the eyes of a smarmy, podgy black haired girl. Her school uniform was perfectly clean and ironed, a far cry from Edith's usual uniform covered in grass stains and fraying at the seams. Gru raised his eyebrow as the girl looked up at him nonchalantly.

"That hort." Gru said to the girl. Despite his stature and gruff voice, Gru was surprised to see she was not scared of him.

"You were in my way." She spat. She tiptoed and smiled at him in a way that made Gru tremble with anger. The nerve this child had…

"Deeden't yor parents teech yoo manners, leetle gorl?" Gru folded his arms and stood there, regarding her with

"My daddy said you are a bad man and I shouldn't talk to you." The girl mockingly laughed.

"Den your daddy is a smart man." Gru chuckled as the girl looked at him oddly. His reaction was not what she expected, he guessed.

"Clarissa Matilda Masters! Come here right now!" A shrill voice echoed from somewhere, and the girl's expression changed to one of fearful apprehension. She ran away without looking, and Gru watched her run to a huge but well dressed, smugly postured woman. The woman looked at Gru with contempt, and Gru gave her "the eye" making her looked away sharply, punctuated with a prissy "humph."

Gru turned away from the girl and her mother and look at the door, wondering why Margo and Edith were taking to long.

"Hi Mr Gru." Margo said from below him. Gru jumped.

"Yoo made a habeet of sneeking up on me." He said, catching his breath. Margo looked at him sideways half amused, and Edith just stared soberly.

"So. What's the plan?" Edith asked.

"What plan?" Gru asked, mildly unsure of the question.

"You know, with Holly." Edith put her hand on her waist and leant on her arm.

"Ah… yes." Gru suspired. "Well, we can either go to Sharkie's peezza or Madamme Sue's for deenner."

"Definitely Sharkie's then…" Edith said with a finality that suggested the matter was closed. She walked off towards Gru's car and Gru huffed.

"Dat gorl has an atteetude problem, seriously." he said to himself, not realising Margo was listening.

"Really?" she asked, getting a little uppity. Gru shrunk back.

"Well… I suppose, yes."

"Maybe she had a bad day at school." Margo pointed out. "But anyway, lets go home."

It was about 50 metres or so to his car. Margo walked next to him, and she stopped. "Oh, by the way, I have a letter for you."

She reached into the bag that had the annoying teenage pop star all over it and fished for something. Gru hated that bag. He hated the teenager star too, and had many times upon walking into the girls room with the teens music playing decided he would visit the star at one point, and feed him a delicious cocktail of acid. Or perhaps just a potion that made his voice sound terrible. Gru couldn't decide which was more amusing.

"We have parents evening on Monday." She said as he handed him an envelope. Gru's face dropped and he drooped. "What?"

"Parents evening. How exciting." Gru said dismally.

"Tough, you have to go." Margo said flatly. "Edith should have a letter too. My teacher is called Mrs Franklin and Edith's is Mr Donahue."

"Great…" Gru said half heartedly as Margo frowned at him.

"Well… maybe you can find out anything about why Edith is so moody. Perhaps she isn't doing well at school." Her tone was ever so slightly belittling, as if Gru was an expert on school matters and how children's minds work. Gru frowned to himself at his daughters attitude. "Come on, have you ever seen Edith with homework?"

"No…" he admitted. An nearly 9 year old should have at least had _some _homework, Gru realised. It had never even occurred to him before now.

"Well… maybe you will find out why." Margo said. "Oh... and one more thing. My friend Merry... Meredith... is coming over next week for homework. OK?"

"Yes." Gru answered ignorantly.

"_And _you can ask Edith who she would like to invite over soon, too." She added again, this time a little more forcefully.

"Yes mother." Gru answered sarcastically, stepping just in front of Margo so he could avoid the inevitable scowl she would direct to him for his remark. She often acted like a mother, and Gru often found himself, and his lack of experience as a parent, under harsh scrutiny. Gru often wondered if this is what husbands dealt with from their wives.

Gru clambered into the car just before Margo and climbed into the cockpit. "Oh… where ees Holly going to sit?"

Margo, Edith and Agnes were cramped enough as it is on their own, now a fourth girl would be joining them, and Gru looked at the 3 girls who both looked back at him absently.

"Its OK!" Margo called from bellow. "I'll sit down here and read."

"OK fair eenough." Gru said and he flopped into his seat.

"Edith, stop pulling faces at me." Agnes barked. Gru frowned.

"What about this one?" Edith said, pulling her lips apart with her fingers.

"Quit it."

"And this."

"Quit it!"

Gru gritted his teeth.

"Edith stop!" Agnes shouted, getting more and more shrill each time.

"I'm not doing anything." Edith mocked.

"_Edith_!" Gru snapped. "Stop buggeeng yor seester."

Edith flopped into her seat and she crossed her arms in a little strop. Agnes smiled at her smugly, and Edith turned to the window, frowning to herself.

Downstairs, Margo sat down carefully at the booth and wiped her glasses for a moment. As the tanks engine chugged into life and she felt the car start to move, she pulled out a pen and a frilly pink book with a big heart on it from her bag and she placed the book gently on the table. She opened up the book about half way through, and began to write in it.

Margo mumbled to herself as she wrote. "Dear diary... July 16th. Today..."

**xxxxx**

"Wow! Cool house!" Holly said, awestruck by the sheer presence his house had in the neighbourhood. Gru followed after her out of the car.

"Yes, it is." He answered indifferently.

"How come I'ts all dirty?" She asked, pointing out the brown colour. "Don't you like cleaning?"

"No, leettle gorl. Dat ees eets normal colour."

Gru stepped over her and unlocked the door and she followed him in. The 3 sisters followed shortly after and dumped their bags. Holly was considerably more flabbergasted now than she was outside. His house was vast. Not only that, but most of the walls were pink.

"The walls are all pink!" she screamed with glee, and turned towards the three girls waiting behind her. "Look! Its like a palace for girls!" she said pointing to the Margo, who smiles.

Gru looked darkly at his adopted daughters, and they coyly looked back. Well except Edith, who's mouth stretched into a mischievous smile.

One on particular day about two weeks ago, they attacked and tortured his poor house with pink paint and pretty bows and stuck tennis balls on spikes everywhere, and basically ruined it.

A rather lethargic and only-just-conscious-from-fainting Gru was told that it was to stop them being taken away by the social worker because his house was not safe, so Gru gave up any angry thoughts and accepted it. He had never gotten around to changing it back. Somehow it soothed him being in such a brightly coloured house, though he would never tell the girls that. The original colour choices had been his mothers before she moved out. Her taste was simple, and the wall colours reflected this.

Gru gradually sprinkled his own personality into the house when she left to live in the spa outside of the city. Most of the decorations were stolen,

"Right. Holly." He said, turning to her. She looked up at him apprehensively as he straightened himself up. "Rooles."

"Rooles?" she asked quietly, imitating Gru's voice innocently. "What's rooles?" she said turning to the 3 girls behind her.

"He means rules." Edith said plainly. Agnes smiled at her, and Margo seemed unsure as to where the 'rules' would take them. She remembered their first day clearly, and how Gru

"Oh…" she cooed, and she looked back at Gru with big eyes.

The three Gru daughters exchanged looks as they all felt the same feeling of deja vu, reminded countless times of their first day in Gru's house. They saw Holly mirror their own feeling of trepidation as they clambered out of his car, the impact of his huge dark brown coloured house. They remembered the feeling of awe as they were swallowed by the vastness of its interior. In this case though, Holly was more excited than they were, as the house was much more friendly and welcoming and Gru, although still a little cold towards the little girl, was far less imposing than he was back then. Margo wondered how things may have been different if Gru was, back then, like he is now, lustful for life and generally happy. He had never been to start off with, she knew the man deep was bitter and alone despite how he tried to hide it with his imposing size and dastardly attitude. Now, he had changed. He was still impatient and generally indifferent to many things, but he had so much more vigour. If he had been this way for his whole life, would the girls be here now? Or would they still be stuck at Miss Hattie's, polishing her silly ornaments and pictures, and selling cookies all over the city and nursing raw and blistered feat at the end of each evening?

Margo smiled... as much as she still felt unsure about the whole situation, coupled with Edith's bitterness and her own misgivings, she was still happy. Happier than she ever remembered. Gru's frowning and desperate-to-look-in-control facial expression snapped her back out of her train of though, and she watched Holly and Gru exchange words.

"I don't like rules." Holly hissed.

"Yes, well you must follow dem regardless, leetle gorl. Dees ees my house and yoo are a guest." Gru sounded off, posed like a commander addressing a trooper.

"Roole number one. You will not touch aneetheeng." He commanded.

"Not even the bows?" she asked sadly with her hand stretching out to grab one that was just within reach.

"Especially not de bows." Gru said gruffly, shooting her a look. Her hand snapped back to her body as if she had touched something very hot and she pursed her lips.

Gru cleared his throat. "Roole number two. You will not explore the house, and dat eencloodes hide and go seek games."

Holly nodded, half listening. She was still drinking in her surroundings, taking ever detail, colour and pretty bow in with child like wonder.

"Rule number 3…" Gru cleared his throat. "No annoyeeing sownds."

"Like what?" Holly asked, sounding ever so carefree and ignorant.

"No borpeeng, no farteeng, no sneezeeng, and especially… do not puckle yoor cheeks." Gru huffed.

"Ew… girls don't fart silly!" Holly snapped, and she wagged a finger at Gru. Gru choked as the four of them giggled and Gru became massively aware of himself. He blushed brightly, and the sight of his red cheeks made the four girls laugh even harder. Gru look at himself in the mirror in the hall dimly, and he pitied his reflection.

"_Aneeway_," he spoke over the giggles, trying to regain a little dignity and control of the girls. "all of yoo, get changed and we will go owt for deenor."

He left the hallway promptly, but stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Holly ask Agnes something. His heart skipped a beat.

"Hey Agnes, show me your dad's super underground lab!" She said excitedly "I wanna see that ray gun and his little yellow cousins!"

Margo and Edith both shared a very nervous look, and Margo gave Agnes, who had turned to her biting her bottom lip, a scowl. "Umm…" Agnes said quietly.

"No no no no no." Gru haphazardly bounded back into the room, and he tugged on his collar nervously. "Agnes just... has a very wild imagination."

Agnes nodded dimly, and Margo and Edith both smiled at Holly awkwardly as her face dropped into a sad pout. "So, no yellow cousins?" she asked, dejected and disappointed.

Gru gave Agnes a stark stare and she shied away from him, and Margo chuckled slightly. Edith looked away, and a plan formed in her mind. Gru clapped his hands together once, making the four children jump slightly.

"Well! Time to go get changed!" Gru said trying to sound excited and keen. He skipped like an idiot into the living room and the girls trudged upstairs. Gru's false smile disappeared and and looked for the TV remote. He saw it perched precariously on the mantlepiece and he placed it on the floor carefully. "Dere, dat should be ok."

He didn't want Holly trying to reach for it on the fire place as Agnes had done the first time his newly adopted daughters found his lab. Nor did he want her to climb on the chair either, so he pushed all of the toys that were placed on there and scattered them on the floor randomly. The more the little girl stuck to the floor area and had things to occupy her there, the more Gru could feel relaxed. If she was distracted by things on the floor, she wouldn't need to climb.

Gru surveyed the room looking for other potential traps or temptations. He saw the iron maiden, and he clicked his fingers. "Better lock dat."

"Anything else?" Margo asked confusedly as she walked into the room. She saw Gru's arrangement of toys and realised what he was up to.

Margo was already changed out of her school uniform, and had changed into a white jacket, black t-shirt and 3 quarter length jeggings, and her hair wasn't in a pony tail for a change. Gru was surprised to see her hair was actually slightly wavy in its natural state.

"Yoo look very different today." Gru mentioned as he locked the iron maiden. "What a beautiful young lady you will be."

"Thanks..." Margo blushed. She smiled shyly stroked the floor with her foot awkwardly. "By the way, Agnes is insisting _you _tie her laces up."

Gru sighed, and he casually threw some more toys on the floor. The floorboards were gradually disappearing under the amount of toys Gru had placed. He wondered where they all came from as he realised that he had probably placed too many down.

"_And _Edith doesn't want to wear the skirt you ironed for her." Margo added. "I can't find anything else in the wardrobe."

"For cryeeng owt..." He smacked his forehead. "Fine. I'll be up in a minute."

Then her head snapped up and she looked at Gru alertly, and he raised his eyebrow at her before she spoke."Wheres Kyle?"

Gru gasped, and their eyes travelled slowly to Kyle's usual resting spot, which was empty.

Margo and Gru shared a look of intense apprehension as just in the corner of their eyes they saw a big ball of fur with legs bounding up the stairs towards the girls' room.

**.**

**xxxxx**

**.**

**Authors Notes: **

**Chapter 7 everyone. This was so much fun to write, it reminded me lots of the film and I kind of wanted to add a little bit of the Despicable Me flavour to the story. I had always pictured Gru learning his lessons the first time around, and this chapter was an opportunity to see how he'd use those lessons to cope with a child guest. But, as we can all see... he's still wet around the ears.**

**Grimm357, thanks for the review! I'm glad you are enjoying it so far.**

**Just to let everyone know, I've opened up a deviantArt account. Occasionally I will draw a character or give a sneak peek of a particular plot from this fanfic, so be sure to check it out! Plus I'll just add other random doodles or drawings I've done. Let me know what you think of them if you have an account!**

** I have a lot of fun drawing the characters, and I've just recently drawn Holly. I will draw Joe some time soon, as he is an important character. Eventually... hehe.**

**The next chapter will be fun too. But, prepare yourselves, things are going to get interesting soon... that is all. ^.^**


	9. Chapter 8: A Diner?

**Chapter 8**

**A Diner?**

In the girl's room, the excitement of Holly and Agnes going out for dinner electrified the air.

Agnes had changed out of her school uniform into her clothes, hardly able to wait any longer. Unfortunately Edith sat on the bed refusing to wear the little outfit Gru had hung up on the wardrobe handle for her, which would only delay their little outing. Agnes wasn't too happy about this.

"I'm just gonna go get changed." Holly said, and she left the room.

"I'm gonna go downstairs and see what Mr Gru is doing." Margo said as she pulled her top on.

Alone with Edith, Agnes turned to her.

"Please get changed Edith." Agnes begged with her big eyes. "We can leave quicker that way.

"No. I don't like this skirt. It's ugly." Edith said dully.

"Why not wear the blue leggings?" Agnes offered, getting them out of the chest of drawers.

"Don't like those either."

Agnes gave her older sister a frown as Edith smiled sarcastically at her.

A couple of minutes of Agnes getting out various different leg wear out of the chest of drawers and Edith refusing to wear them later, Holly stepped back into the room, changed.

"Your t-shirt is really big Holly!" Agnes said, giggling.

"I know. It was my dads, he gave it to me when we lost all of our others." Holly flopped the gigantic sleeves around. "If I flap hard enough I bet could fly."

"No you can't." Edith interrupted. "You need feathers."

Holly and Agnes looked at the sullen buzz-killing girl sitting on her bed and she shrugged. "I'm just saying."

Edith watched her sister and her friend chatting and looked out of the window. Hopefully… she thought… today would be a decent day. Just then, the door creaked open and Kyle trotted on. Edith's big blue/grey eyes widened, and they flicked over to Holly. She gulped, and remembered her first day in the house and how Kyle reacted to their presence.

"Oooh look a doggy!" Holly laughed, and she bounded towards the creature. Kyle reared his back as the girl approached. Edith and Agnes both shared a look of extreme apprehension, and Edith leapt off of the bed to stop Holly, but she was too late. Holly was upon Kyle. At the very same time Holly started screaming Gru and Margo bounded into the room and the four Gru family members froze, looking at the tangle of greenish fur and blonde hair and flailing legs.

"No!" Gru shouted and he leapt to rescue the girl. Margo, Edith and Agnes watched Gru's huge frame travel through the air and land with a harsh thud on the wooden floor and he grabbed at the fur or blonde hair, whichever was in reach first.

It was then that Gru realised Holly was not screaming, but laughing. And Kyle was simply "attacking" her with his tongue, licking her face and arms. He laid there for a second, and blew out of his cheeks in relief.

"Ah help me Agnes!" Holly laughed and Agnes leapt over to join in. Kyle was growling and snorting playfully and the girls giggled.

Gru stood up and dusted himself off. "Well… dats a releef." He said breathless with relief.

"You're telling me." Margo interjected with a similar lack of breath. "Can you imagine what Joe would have said if his daughter was bitten?"

"Yes… Oh dat reminds me I must reeng heem." Gru stood straight and pointed to Edith. "Put on dat skort."

Edith looked at him and pulled a face. "But I don't like it."

"Den wear yor peenk leggeengs like you always do." Gru huffed, dismal and impatient. "Just… sometheeng on."

"I'll help you find something Edith." Margo offered, looking at the pile of clothes Agnes left on the floor.

Gru stepped out of the room and walked down to his phone, and picked out the card from his pocket. He sighed, and began to dial slowly, pressing each number on the keypad hard.

The phone rang for a few seconds, and then Gru heard a click. "Hello?"

"Yes. Joe. Eet is I." Gru said flatly.

"I? Who is I?" Joe asked, sounding a little confused. His voice was crackly, Gru assumed he had bad signal or something.

Gru huffed again. "Gru."

"Hey! Gru-some." Joe said, his voice becoming cheerful. "What's hanging? Just joking by the way. I knew it was you."

Gru gritted his teeth, but he regained control of his rising impatience. "I am calling yoo as yoo requested."

"Oh yeah. How is the little joy?" He asked, getting to the point. Gru liked this.

"Fine. She has gotten changed out of her uniform. Her t-short is ernourmous." Gru said dimly, as he did not particularly want to escort such a scruffy child around with him. It might look bad.

"Oh yeah. Its all I could find for her when we moved here." Joe said half heartedly, his voice crackling for a second or two. Gru ignored his probable attention seeking comment.

"Dat's great, but I weell drop hor off tomorrow at 10 a emm. De gorls have ballet at ten thorty."

"Ah damn, czu I gotta run an errand till midday so I won't be around."

Gru sighed. "OK. 1.30 pee emm?"

"Sure, that's alright with me." Joe said. Gru noticed his accent sounded a little thinner down the phone. "I live at 345 Sycamore Lane, Apartment Block B. I'll wait outside for you so you don't have to bring her up. And thanks Gru."

"Good. Anyway…" Gru started, trying to finish the phone call.

"Listen…" Joe interrupted, and Gru bit his tongue. There was a pause as Gru waited for the man to speak. He could tell Joe hesitated for a second, and considered attempting to end the conversation there. Gru heard a small click, and the background distortion became worse. He could hear light breathing.

"Joe?" Gru asked hesitantly, getting a little freaked out for some reason. He thought of that horror movie he saw last month, Margo insisted they watch when Edith and Agnes went to bed.

"Listen, Holly said you were taking the girls out for dinner tonight." He began, and Gru knew exactly what was coming. "I don't got a lot to do tonight, mind if I tag along?"

Gru slumped and nearly threw the phone out of his hand. He instead imitated throwing it, and flapped his arms around in a strop. He brought the phone back to his ear and controlled his breathing, calming down.

"Well we were just leaving so yoo won't make eet een time. There's not much point now. Eef I had called earlior den maybe, I _do_ apologise." Gru sounded ever so slightly mocking but he doubted Joe could tell. He caught sight of himself in the mirror and smiled to his reflection. "You genius", he mouthed.

He heard a tiny little gasp and a huff, slightly too high pitched to be a males voice. Gru. 'Who was dat?" he asked carefully.

"Who was what?" Joe asked, his tone reflecting his disappointment.

"It was me, Margo." Gru heard. He jumped in the air in surprise and nearly dropped the phone. He grasped for it as it flew into the air, and brought it slowly back to his ears, his lips pursed.

"And why are yoo listeneeng to my conversations?"

"I picked the phone up by mistake." Gru's eyes half closed at her blatant fib. "But I heard you say that we were just leaving and that's why Joe couldn't-."

"Dats right!" Gru interrupted loudly, desperate to stop Margo in her tracks, as he knew exactly what she was doing. "And with dat I theenk-"

"Joe can come." Margo interrupted Gru chidingly. "Edith won't be ready for 10 minutes or so, so we can meet Joe there."

Gru closed his eyes, hard, and gritted his teeth together so forcefully they might shatter. Margo had completely dominated him again, he had no way of avoiding Joe coming now. She had played him at his own game and won.

"Of course…" Gru said despondently. "I completelee forgot about Edith. How seelly of me."

"Of course you did." He heard Margo say on the other end. The three way conversation had taken a horrible twist. Gru had forgotten he connected a second phone in the girls room, and a few times prior to now he considered taking it out as they never used it. The idea was that they could call Gru's cell phone if he was out. Now his laziness had come back to haunt him.

"Great!" Joe said happily. "There's this really nice diner I know of called The Sleepy Hunter."

"A diner?" Gru asked, genuinely confused but also apprehensive. It sounded awful, whatever it was.

"It's a place lots of families go. They do the nicest T-bones you'll ever eat in all 50 states."

"That sounds awesome!" Gru heard Margo chirp from her end. "I love family places."

"Oh yes… how breelleeant." Gru mocked. "Wooden't you prefor peezza Margo?" Gru asked as his hope slipped away.

"Oh no can do, Gru. Holly has lactose intolerance remember." He heard Joe say.

"No big deal. I like steak anyway, pizza can get boring after a while." Margo said smarmily. Gru knew for a fact that comment was actually directed at him. The thing that annoyed Gru the most about the comment was Margo was often the first to request pizza, and now she was proving a point to Gru. He reneged.

"Ok fine. I weell go get de gorls."

"Ok Gru-some." Joe said cheerfully. Gru grounded his teeth as he heard Margo laugh. "Well anyway I'll meet you both there. See you soon."

"Bye Joe!" Margo said cheerily, and she hung up.

Gru hung up too, and looked sullenly at the phone. He hated this little electronic device, it had ruined his evening and now Gru had to entertain a man he didn't like _and_ his hyperactive daughter. Plus, Agnes seemed to be beyond control when her and Holly were together. He had a hard enough time with Edith, and now Agnes had a little sidekick it seemed like Gru's problems were only getting worse.

"Well, that was the single most soul destroying phone call ever." Me muttered to himself as he heard footsteps approaching from the floor above. Margo appeared half way down the spiral staircase and she looked at Gru and her eyes twinkled with her little victory.

"Gru-some?" She laughed. "Love it."

"Of course yoo woold." Gru snapped. The other girls soon followed behind Margo. Gru took one look at Holly, and his vision flicked between Agnes and Edith and Holly. Holly was nearly as tall as Edith, Gru saw. His eyes widened as a thought crept into his head.

Gru realised early on in the adoption, when the girls interacted with other children or went to ballet especially, that Edith and Agnes were quite short for their age.

He looked at Holly and sighed dimly. "Eef yoo are coming owt weeth us, you cannot go owt lookeeng like dat."

Holly checked herself over and looked back at Gru with a screwed up face. "Looking like what?"

"Agnes, take hor eento de room and get hor changed eento some of Ediths old clothes." Gru ordered, folding his arms. He looked at Edith, who didn't say anything and her expression didn't change. Good… something she _didn't_ complain about for a change. The two girls skipped off upstairs.

Edith perched herself on the bottom step and sat down, sulking a little and tugging at her clothes. Gru could tell the girl wasn't too happy with what Margo chose. Gru wondered if 8 year old girls should be so conscious of what they wore, but he didn't think too deeply into it and just accepted it as it was.

"Yor beeg seestor has an eye for fashion, Edith." Gru said to her with his eyebrow raised. His arms were still folded, and Edith became defensive towards him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She snapped.

"I meen, you look like a presentable child for a change." Gru said.

She looked at herself again. She was wearing light blue jeans and black tshirt with a rock star horns hand symbol sewn onto it. Her white trainers were also clean for a change, usually they were caked in dirt. Gru thanked himself he did the washing today. Gru and Margo both thought to themselves she looked very pretty. Edith blushed very slightly under their admiring gaze.

Just then, Agnes came back downstairs with Holly, who was wearing an outfit that was very similar to Agnes own outfit of a white t-shirt, pink skirt and stripy white and red leggings with white boots.

"Why is Holly wearing my favourite clothes? Edith asked angrily.

"You both have blonde hair." Agnes justified smugly, and she placed her hand on her waist to add effect. Margo chuckled; she loved watching Agnes and Edith have their little sibling rivalry one-upmanship games, and she and Edith used to do the same in the first few months of living at Miss Hattie's. That was, until Margo had to grow up very fast to be able to take care of her sisters.

"Ok gorls, lets go." Gru said, picking Agnes up and putting her on his shoulders.

The four of them began the short walk to the chrome tank car, and Margo smiled to herself as the watched Gru and the other three girls climb into the car. Gru picked Edith up and held her in one arm as he stepped inside, and Margo saw her younger sister place her arm around his shoulder and grip his collar tightly. He had only ever picked her up once before.

Margo looked up to the blue afternoon sky and breathed out a contented sigh. She was optimistic about the evening ahead, even if Gru wasn't.

**.**

**xxxxxxxx**

**.**


	10. Chapter 9: Steak and Other Delicacies

**Chapter 9**

**Steak and Other Delicacies **

"…see you soon." Joe said, hanging up the phone.

He placed it on the receiver, and looked around his apartment. It would be nice to get out for a change. Despite what little money he had in his pocket, he could stretch to a beer and a decent meal for himself and his daughter every once in a while, if only to escape the dreary and putrid looking apartment they lived in.

Hopefully the errand he was due to run tomorrow would bring a little income in, and he could pay the rent and treat Holly to some time at the arcade after Gru dropped her off. As he thought of this outing, he realised he could ask Gru and the girls to join them. Might be a fun day. Though, that sent other thoughts through Joe's mind, too.

Gru seemed less than reluctant to allow him to come, but Joe paid no mind to this. Perhaps the man was just weary of making friends or something, but Joe would keep trying. There was something about the man Joe just liked. He didn't know why, Gru hadn't exactly been the friendliest of people on their first meeting, and their interactions since hadn't changed all that much. Tonight though, would be different. Joe was going to bring him out of his shell.

Joe showered himself with the lukewarm slightly off colour water that the apartment provided from the gigantic boiler in the basement, and got himself dressed. He didn't exactly have a wide range of clothes to choose from, and threw on a black t-shirt and pair of combat trousers, and black shoes. Joes longish brown hair refused to obey him and he tried his best to style it properly, but gave up. He did at least want to look half presentable to Gru and his daughters, the other parents at his daughter's school looked at him with scorn since he was scruffy and didn't drive a nice car or wear expensive clothes and jewellery like they did. It was a miracle Holly was allowed into West Fields at all, he often though to himself. Such a well regarded school must have a lot of well to do parents clamouring for their children to be accepted into it, but Joe was not one to question good fortune too much. When it did happen, it was to be accepted gratefully, since it was not a common occurrence anymore.

Joe stepped out into the street outside the apartment block and walked to his car. The air was cool and the sun shined brightly, but it was making its descent into the western sky and would soon be swallowed up by the glass and concrete skyscrapers that were not too far from him. Thankfully, his car started without a struggle for a change, and he prepared himself for an evening of chit chat with a starkly gruff, imposing man and his three friendly daughters.

**xxxxx**

Gru approached the address Joe had given him for the "diner". The streets seemed clean and tidy, but Gru was not optimistic about Joe's (and partly Margo's) choice of restaurant. The man wasn't well off, Gru knew as much, so it was likely the place would be cheap, tacky, and the food would probably taste awful. A super villain such as him had expensive tastes and simple food was not usually part of their palette, especially Gru's. Although, he realised, his current diet consisted mainly of takeaway pizza so perhaps this diner would provide him with something different for a change.

"There it is!" he head Agnes shout. She tapped his shoulder and pointed.

Gru followed her finger and his eyes rested on a little restaurant on a busy intersection. It looked much like the old Western taverns he saw in those cowboy movies as a child, and his fears were confirmed. The Sleepy Hunter was exactly everything he had expected.

"There's daddy." Holly chirruped, herself pointing. Gru saw the man leaning on the wall outside waiting for them. The man waved as Gru's vehicle came into view and Gru began to park up. A few minutes and 3 destroyed cars later, they hopped out of the car and walked over to him, apart from Holly who near sprinted to him.

"Hey baby girl." Joe said as knelt down giving her a big hug.

"Gru has this cool dog with green fur." Holly said, playing with his collar. Joe looked at her funnily, and Gru tried to avoid looking at him lest he aroused suspicion. Joe, however, took it as his daughter's wild imagination going crazy.

"That's nice, honey." Joe said, patting her head after he placed her down. "And hello to you four."

The three girls waved and smiled to Joe, but Gru ignored them, instead staring into the restaurant through the window. The place was packed with people. Families with children, groups of loud teenagers and the occasional dating couple filled the tables and Gru shuddered to think of the amount of noise he would have to put up with.

There was an awkward silent for a minute or two as Joe looked at Gru and the three girls, waiting for something to happen. Holly and Agnes both looked up to their respective family members ignorant of the slowly rising tension. Margo was the first to speak.

"So, shall we go in?" She said, trying to break the ice. She looked up at Gru who's expression tightened for a nanosecond when she said this, and she frowned at him. "Please make an effort tonight, Gru." she though to herself.

"Of course… lets go…" Gru said unexcitedly. He dragged his feet into the diner and Edith followed after him. Margo gave Joe an awkward smile as she saw he looked a little uncomfortable, and everyone walked in after Gru and Edith

The almost touchable wall of noise Gru walked into was both piercing and intolerable. All he could hear was 50 different conversations occurring at once, mixed in with shouting children, waitresses announcing orders to cooking staff (the kitchen was open), and the clatter of cutlery on plates. He cringed, he would have to bear this AND Joe. The place was tacky, that much was true. Hunting paraphernalia lined the walls, with photo's of hunting trips, hunting uniforms stapled on the walls randomly about the place and pretend guns mounted on racks. In the centre of the rectangular diner, just above the bar was a photo of the titular sleeping hunter. Gru felt uncertain of all the simply garish themed decorations. They were pointless and did the place no favours at all. He sighed, if only Joe could have been richer, he might have been able to go to some where nicer, with less silly finery and probably much better tasting food. Gru stood there idly for a moment with Edith, and waited for something to happen.

Margo walked with Joe to a small podium that stood just in front of the entrance and waited. A young blonde waitress dressed in a slightly skimpy themed hunting uniform approached them.

"Hi y'all, and welcome to The Sleepy Hunter. How many will be eatin' tonight?" she asked in a Southern American accent. Her voice was bubbly, Gru heard. He laughed inwardly, how could anyone be upbeat working in a place like this?

"Six, please." Margo said happily. She looked up to Gru and beamed up at him. Gru gave an awkward smile back, still trying to adjust to the noise before allowing his face to settle into its usual scowl when he was in a place or a situation he was not comfortable with. Margo saw this and tried hard to ignore it, but her brow furrowed just a little. He had been wearing that scowl the first time they met, and then it vanished after a few days. Now it seemed to have returned recently, and Margo assumed it was because of a few things. She pushed those thoughts to the back of her head.

"Certainly, follow me, sugar." The waitress smiled picking up three adult and three kid's menus and she lead them towards their table. Edith and Agnes were awed by the place, and they walked around open mouthed, taking in everything from the fake rifles hung on the walls to the moose's head, that hung just above their table. Holly however clung to Joe's arm most of the time, silent.

Everyone sat down, except for Gru who partly flopped onto his seat. Margo looked at him angrily as Gru picked up his menu and hid behind it.

"This place is soooo cool!" Edith said excitedly. She grabbed Gru's arm and he looked at her with annoyance. "Look at that big gun!"

"Yes… very eenteresting." Gru muttered, burying his head back into the menu and giving the gun a very quick glance.

"Can I get y'all somethin' to drink?" The waitress asked. She pulled out a little pad and held her pen to it, still smiling.

"Yeah, uh Holly will have a Coke, and I'll have a glass of McCray's Extra Smooth please." Joe said, clasping his hands together.

Margo looked at Gru expectantly, waiting for him to say something. He looked up briefly, and realised he was supposed to order.

"Um, yes. Four glasses of water." He said hurriedly.

Gru's adopted daughters both looked at him darkly. "Really? Just water?" Margo asked harshly, raising her eyebrow. Edith and Agnes shared a glance.

"Well what do yoo want?" Gru spoke back to Margo, in a similar tone as she did to him.

"I'll have a coke." Edith said. Gru looked at her for a second mistrustfully. Edith and coke was not advisable.

"Me too." Agnes added.

"And me please."Margo said as well. "But no ice please."

Gru looked at them exasperatedly and they looked back stoically, and Gru knew this was not a fight he was going to win. Margo gave him a desperate look which Gru could not work out, despite the ferocity of it.

"Yes. I woold like to order four cokes pleese."

"Not having a beer?" Joe interrupted.

"Um… no. I don't dreenk beer."

"Why not? Too bitter?" Joe laughed a little.

"I've nevor tried it." Gru admitted. Margo smiled a little, hoping Gru was beginning to warm up to the evening.

"Come on, have a McCray's with me." Joe said. "Its on me. Call it a "new friend drink" or something."

Gru looked sideways at Joe dubiously and he saw in the corner of his eye Margo throw him a frown.

"Um, sure. I'll try eet." Gru conceded, and he promptly buried his head in the menu again.

"Great stuff." The waitress said cheerily, and she wandered off.

"Holly, now put the steak knife down." Joe wagged his finger at her. She placed it onto the table carefully and looked away from her fathers stern gaze.

Another couple of minutes of silence passed at their table, and Margo felt she had to again break the ice.

"I like this place so far. Its fun." She said happily. She looked up at Gru and gave him a big smile that he returned, if falsely.

"I've only been here once with Holly before." Joe joined in on the conversation and ruffled her hair. "Best steak ever."

"I want a 20 ounce T-Bone!" Edith jumped up and stood on her seat banging her hands onto the table. She licked her lips. "With fries."

"I like ice cream." Agnes said wistfully. Margo gave her a wry smile.

"You can't have that until desert, silly." She said.

"Awww, but I want something sweet."

"De coke is sweet Agnes. Wait until after you have eaten your "main course"." Gru added nonchalantly, making the speech marks sign sarcastically with his fingers.

"Not your usual choice of eatery huh Gru." Joe remarked. Margo eyes flickered between them.

"Nope, I haven't eeten out for yeors."

"Well there isn't anything better than a nice family oriented diner for a nice evening out." Joe said calmly, while looking at his menu. "Put the knife down Holly. Don't pick it up again."

"I'm sure eet ees." Gru said nonchalantly.

"I haven't been to a place like this before." Edith said, joining in on Gru's and Joe's conversation, though her remark was more directed at Gru. Unfortunately he ignored her.

Just then, the drinks came.

The waitress placed down the drinks at each of their seating positions and gave Edith, Agnes and Holly a curly straw each. Holly and Agnes appreciated this, but Edith leered at hers as if it was an insult a child like her would want a silly straw.

"I'll just let ya'll read through the menus and come back to take your orders, okay?" the waitress smiled and sauntered off to the bar.

Joe raised his glass. "To new friends everyone." He smiled and gulped, downing about a third of the yellowy liquid. Everyone apart from Gru mimicked him, Agnes and Holly obviously not really sure what the point of raising your glass is, but they did it anyway and just went along with it.

"To new friends." Edith and Margo said, and they smiled at each other. Gru raised his glass briefly before drawing it eye level.

Gru assessed his drink morosely for a moment, and then he glanced at Joe. He sipped too, and felt a bitter concoction sting his tongue and slither down his throat. Joe eyed him amusedly for a second.

"That really was your first beer, huh." He chuckled. Gru nodded, and his cheeks swelled as he moved his tongue around his mouth, still gauging the flavour and making his mind up about it.

"Eet ees certainly not like de wine." He said.

"Never been a big wine man myself, beer is much smoother I feel."

"Dat ees true, eet certainly ees smooth. But very bittor." Gru had another sip, then he gulped.

"But, I can see you kinda like it." Joe pointed as he drank.

"Well, I woold be lying eef I said eet wasn't growing on me." Gru said thoughtfully, and he smacked his lips.

"I want some beer." Edith said. Margo's eyes widened as Gru made to pass his large pint glass to her and she put her hand in the way. Joe laughed. Gru looked at Margo and gave her a quizzical look.

"She can't drink that!" Margo said half amused half shocked.

"Why evor not?" Gru asked, genuinely unsure why.

"Because its illegal and she's only 8, stupid." Margo chided lightly. Edith crossed her arms and pouted.

"Can't I have some of yours dad?" Holly asked Joe, who shook his head and ruffled her hair. "Aww."

The girls nattered away for a few moments and Joe and Gru didn't speak, and they looked through the menu.

"Everyone made up their minds?" Margo asked suddenly.

"I made my mind up as soon as we walked through the door." Edith said darkly. Margo looked at her dimly.

"Pizza by any chance?" Gru said from behind his menu, hiding away in it again.

"No." Edith punched his arm lightly. "Steak."

"Edith, yoo are not haveeng a 20 ounce steak." Margo and Gru said at the same time.

"Why not?" Edith asked in a huff. "That's what I am eating." She crossed her arms and she smiled brat like at Margo.

"Fine. Though we will take home what you don't eat and you will eet it cold." Gru bargained.

"Fine, you watch me eat every bite Mr Gru. If I win, I get a prize"

Joe had noticed the tendency of Edith and Margo to call their father Mr Gru, he also noticed how Agnes called him dad at school. He considered this for a second or two.

Everyone heard a little gasp, and suddenly all eyes were on Agnes.

"They have unicorn shaped meat shapes!" she screeched in glee.

Everyone, including Gru, giggled and smiled. Gru took another swig of beer and looked at the now empty glass.

"Dameet." He said, prompting a little flash of annoyance from Margo.

"Language." She hissed.

"Oh, right." Gru said, succumbing to her starkly firm stare. "Sorry."

Joe chuckled to himself at the little scene, Margo was such a sassy girl he just imagined what it must be like to live with her. She was judgmental and smart, and always looked at Gru with chagrin whenever he did something she did not approve of. Since Gru was not married, she filled in the role of a mother perfectly, and Gru was almost her child too in so many ways. He laughed out loud, which prompted stares from everyone including his daughter.

"What's so funny Mr Joe?" Agnes asked sweetly.

"Oh…" he choked, smiling. "Nothing honey."

"Mr Joe..." Margo said with a sudden realisation. "We don't know your surname."

Gru looked up at the man, waiting.

"Its Palantino." He said plainly after a short pause.

"Palantino?" Margo asked.

"Yeah. Yours is Gru right?" Holly asked, joining in on the conversation.

"Yep." Edith nodded. "Edith Gru has a ring to it!"

"Hey Gru." Joe said, looking up from his menu. "I don't know your first name."

Gru's eyes narrowed, and Margo looked up at him, a wry smile spread across her face. Gru had no idea Margo knew his first name.

"Uh…" he hesitated, as everyone looked at him. He began to retreat from the stares by lifting up the menu again. "I forgot."

"Its Felonius." Margo said simply. Gru flashed her a frowning stare and she smiled at him daringly.

"Felonius Gru…" Joe said, scratching his chin. "Cool."

Joe picked up his half drunk beer and took a sip, and placed it down onto the table gently. Gru and Margo both looked at each other then to Joe, both of them had expected Joe to find his name amusing. Gru avoided telling people his first name, as they either laughed or asked questions about its origin, especially having an accent Gru was often the subject of much interrogation from random people. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Felonius?" Edith asked, her face screwed up in confusion. "What kind of name is that?" Gru frowned and sulked.

Joe looked at her, unsure. She was 8 years old, and didn't know her fathers name? Still, he held his tongue, there was perhaps a reasonable explanation.

As if on queue to distract Gru from telling everyone his name and Edith asking about it, the waitress appeared with her face dressed with its usual toothy smile and held up her notepad and pen. "Right everybody, ready to make your order?"

**xxxxx**

"You know, I weel admeet eet." Gru mumbled with his mouth half full. "I was wrong, the food here is actually pretty good."

Margo smiled as she sipped some of her soup, and Agnes looked up at him with a breaded chicken unicorn shape hanging out of her mouth. Edith nodded in agreement, she had ordered the same size steak as Gru and it practically dwarfed her, but she was up to the challenge and was eating it ravenously.

"I still can't believe you've never been to a place like this." Joe said just after he swallowed a mouthful of his food. "Its good, my parents used to take places to eat all the time."

Gru surveyed the table, and eyed up everyone's food. While it didn't look particularly pleasing to the eye, Gru accepted that looks can be deceiving and the food did smell good and tasted good too. Joe had ordered a ribeye steak with potatoes and barbecue sauce smothering it all. Holly was digging into a similar meal to Agnes, she had chips, breaded meat shapes and peas. The sound of munching and the occasional mumble of satisfaction filled the air. The place had quietened down a bit now, Gru thanked.

"Yes, well I nevor usually go places like dis, but as I said I haven't eaten out for years." Gru mentioned flatly, and he crammed another forkful of delicious t-bone steak into his mouth.

"What places do you go to?" Joe asked. He sighed and wiped Holly, she had spilt her macaroni and cheese again. "Girl, one of these days your father is gonna teach you proper eating technique."

"If you haven't taught her by now she'll never learn." Margo joked.

"Heh, when a girl your age gives me parenting tips and I accept them I'll be long gone, kid." He retorted, smiling at her. Margo laughed.

"Trust me, Agnes was a nightmare to get her to eat properly. She still can't use her fork properly." She pointed at Agnes, who looked up at Margo and pouted. The girl was struggling to cut her chicken shapes with her knife and fork, and had resorted to just cramming a whole piece into her mouth and chewing it until she could swallow.

"Hah, Gru must have had a hard time raising all three of you." Joe laughed. Margo laughed too.

"Eet has been very tough, yes." Gru said dismally, and he ruffled Edith's hat and pointed at her. "Yoo missy, are hard work."

She poked her tongue out at him and gave a sarcastic grin. Her mouth was still full of food and it was all in her teeth, and Gru sighed at her. "Evor the charmeeng young lady."

"I really like this food." Edith said. "I always wanted to come here after we delivered cookies for the oprhanage."

Joe coughed a little. "Orphanage? You mean you are…?"

Margo smiled at him, taking note of his attempt at sounding tactful. "Yeah, Gru adopted us about two months ago."

"Well, one if you consider the fact he gave us back first." Edith interrupted. Gru and Margo both choked on whatever was in their mouths. "Uhh…"

"What Edith means is we got taken back for a day because of a problem with the adoption." Margo chuckled nervously. Edith looked at her confused and she opened her mouth to speak, so Margo shot her a look which made the pink-hatted eight year old return to her plate of food and eat in silence.

"Yes, it was dis stupid problem with administration." Gru added anxiously.

"Well, at least you got it sorted out in the end." Joe said ignorantly, and Gru felt his sense of apprehension slowly disappear.

Joe now knew why the girls called him Mr Gru, and why Edith didn't even know his first name. It was obvious Gru was touchy about his name and preferred to be referred to as just Gru, so perhaps that's why she didn't know. Joe wondered how Margo knew, she was a smart girl and Joe knew it. He laughed a little again, she really liked Gru's adopted kids, and could see them being good friends and influences to his daughter. Perhaps even Gru might be a good uncle-figure, now Joe had finally witnessed the man come out of his shell and in a decent mood. He was even making conversation with Joe, which was shocking in itself.

"Oh Edith…" Gru chuckled. "Eyes beeggor dan yoor stomach?"

He waved a piece of steak in front of her and shoved into his mout, putting his lips in mock pity. She looked down at her steak and she sighed. "…no I can finish it." She said stoicially.

She picked up another forkful of steak and put it into her mouth. She struggled to chew, let alone swallow.

"Remembor our bet Edith." Gru mocked further. Edith pushed her plate away.

"Fine. You win." She huffed. She crossed her arms and Gru smiled.

"Haha!" he stood up and held his arms into the air in celebration. "Gru has mastered Edith!"

Edith frowned and picked up her fork. The steak was probably about three quarters gone, so although the gigantic plate made it seem like there wasn't much left, to an eight year old girl, there was still a way to go. But, letting Gru win was not an option.

Gru looked down at her dominant stare and his smile vanished. "What?" he said, shocked. The steak was gone, and Edith smiled.

"What? Can't you see I've finished?"

"Dat ees eempossible." Gru searched under the table, under plates and even dared to ask the family behind them if they had seen a steak. The four girls and Joe were laughing hysterically and Gru frowned dejectedly.

"So… what do I win?" Edith asked pointedly.

"Nothing, because yoo cheated." Gru crossed his arms, and a wry smile crept across his face.

"No I didn't." Edith countered plainly.

"Dis isn't some silly cheeldrens cartoon, dere is no way you could have eaten all dat in one mouthful." Gru huffed, slightly aggravated. His competitive streak flared and Edith was well up to the challenge. They both stared at each other, mimicking each others stance of crossed arms and piercing stares.

Everyone at the table was trying to stifle their laughs, and Gru felt his impatience rising. "Where ees de steak Edith."

"In my belly!" She leapt onto her seat and pointed to it tauntingly, her belly was slightly distended and she rubbed it, satisfied. "Yummy steak. I want my prize."

"Fine." Gru conceded, with a big frown and a childish pout. Margo laughed at his pout, the man was middle aged but his attitude and body language made him seem childish. "When we get home we can go to the lab and fire some guns off."

"Uhhh…" Margo said in sudden trepidation. Edith looked up at Gru, her mouth open and she looked shocked.

"What?" Gru said. His face contorted to sudden realisation as to what he just said. Joe looked at Gru expectantly.

Joe's tendency to be very quiet and ignorant as to many things that were said perhaps in some ways disquieted Gru, as Gru was unable to judge if the man took it in. But, Gru finally realised, he was taking it all in, and Joe's face communicated that fact very well.

In some ways, though the expert Gru was in reading human faces for subtle movements that told Gru when someone was lying, for example, Joe was the opposite. Gru could not work him out, and Gru often wondered if the man actually was an idiot or just hid his intelligence well.

Gru hesitated for a second and his brain worked overtime to come up with an excuse. "You know, de basement."

Joe's eyebrow raised.

"Edith likes guns, so in de basement I set up a leetle firing range and we use nerf guns." Gru explained, though it was obvious he was altering the truth.

"Yeah, I like to call it a lab." Edith added anxiously.

Agnes and Holly remained quiet, casually eating their food and smiling at each other as they ripped another meat shape apart with their hands. Oh to be young and ignorant.

"Huh." Joe said nonchalantly. "Well, sounds like a cool house!"

Joe resigned to eat some more of his food quietly. Gru had done this many times, said something he realised he shouldn't have, then panic and come up with a clever alternative explanation that sounded like a child like interpretation or something they would have imagined.

Joe furrowed his brow... a lab? Although a child imagining a basement could be a laboratory was perfectly normal, the sudden change in tone from both Edith and Margo, and also Gru's sudden panic and fumbled explanations were not. There was much more to this family than meets the eye. Joe wondered about Holly for a moment while the table was quiet, save for the clang of cutlery and the occasional sipping sound.

"So, Joe." Gru said out of the blue. "What do yoo do den?"

Joe pulled on his collar nervously. Gru took note of this, and had turned the tables on him expertly.

"Well, I don't do a whole lot." Joe said calmly. "I do odd jobs, mechanical work mainly. Just take it as it comes, I don't have a full time job."

"Ah well at least you didn't sell cookies." Edith waved a fork at him.

"Very true." Joe smirked.

"Well, eet ees getting a leetle late now. I theenk we should call eet a day soon as de gorls have ballet in the morning." Gru said sounding a little disappointed.

Margo smiled, Gru had come out of his shell with Joe and she was happy. She thought about the day they went to the theme park, how cold and indifferent Gru was until he had been given time to adjust. Margo knew Gru wouldn't let her down, he just needed to be given time.

"Ooh you do ballet?" Holly asked, excitedly. "I want to do that!"

"Maybe one day kiddo." Joe said, patting her head, and she smiled at him.

"Are coming to watch us tomorrow?" Agnes asked Holly. Holly looked up at Gru, and her eyes grew into the size of plates and she cutely fluttered her eyelashes. Gru sighed half amused, as he was now aware using your cuteness to get your own way was not just confined to Agnes. It made him feel better that he was not the only father in the world with a daughter that had a god-like power over them using cuteness.

"Yes, as Joe has errands to run." he answered.

"Yay!" Holly squeaked, and Agnes pumped her fist into the air with glee. "And don't forget I want ice cream."

**xxxxx**

"Goodbye Joe!" Edith Agnes and Margo waved.

"Bye girls!" he waved back. "Holly… be good!"

"I will." she said sweetly.

Joe held out his hand to Gru. "I enjoyed tonight, buddy."

Margo looked at Gru with apprehension as Gru assessed Joe's extended hand for a second. Gru held out his and shook Joe's hand.

"Agreed, friend." Gru smiled. "I will drop Holly home at 1 tomorrow eef dat is OK."

Margo beamed.

"Sure thing."

They made their way to their own cars and climbed inside. Margo hopped onto the seat downstairs as she had done earlier, and smiled to Holly as she made her way up the ladder. Gru allowed the girls to climb up before him and he pushed Agnes up with his hand. "Thanks." she said sweetly.

As Gru made his way to climb up, Margo cleared her throat.

"Mr Gru?" she asked tentatively.

"Yes Margo?" he paused as he put his foot on the bottom rung. He looked over to her expectantly.

"Thank you."

"For what?" Gru asked, stepping off of the ladder. Above, Agnes could be heard moaning and Edith laughing, but Gru ignored this for now.

"For making an effort." she answered quietly. "It means a lot to me."

Gru considered her for a moment, and he shrugged. "Sure, I guess."

"No really. It was nice to see you open yourself up to other people."

"I see. Well, eet was a good eveneeing." Gru was unsure why Margo thanked him, for doing something he was not aware of.

"No, I mean it. Thank you." she smiled, and jumped off her table and ran to him. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around his waist, and gave him a hug. Gru raised his arms in mild surprise at this, then he placed his arms around her and returned her cuddle. "Its nice to have a family, and everything that comes with it." she added cheerily, and she closed her eyes and squeezed him closer.

"Well, I am glad yoo are happy." Gru smiled. "Now let go, I have to get yoo home or Edith weell be in a bad mood tomorrow from not getteeing anough sleep." he pinched her nose playfully, and she brushed off his hand and giggled.

"I'm not 5 Mr Gru." she laughed. Gru chuckled, and turned away, making his way back to the ladder.

"Mr Gru?" she asked, again sounding worried.

Gru sighed and turned around half heartedly. "What now Margo?" he said, eyeing her with a little irritation.

"You..." she began, and she brushed her foot uncomfortably on the metal grate floor. "You have stopped with the heists, right?"

Her eyes shone with hope, and she stood there with her usual hands-behind-her-back submissiveness.

Gru paused, and he looked at his adopted daughter sadly. "Yes Margo. No more heists."

Gru looked away cheerlessly as her face stretched into a smile. "Thank you." she said kindly.

Gru nodded and turned to the ladder and climbed up. He felt awful about lying again, but the 11 year old would never allow him to go on a heist no matter how much money he needed. It was draining fast, and soon he would find it difficult to continue with the lab. Although he knew Margo was wise beyond her years, she would not accept Gru felt his only option was to perform a heist, even if he needed money. And she would never believe him, either. Gru felt in so many ways he was a lost soul in this world, that his personality, demeanour and outlook would not afford him much success in any legitimate and honest line of work. Plus, as far as the world of employment was concerned, he didn't exist. He had no experience in any field, despite his considerable intellect and resourcefulness. He would never be able to convincer her of this fact.

He silently ignored the 3 girls playing in their seats, and started the vehicle. He looked out of the window, forlorn and disappointed with himself. Gru sighed, and made himself a promise that this would be his final heist and he would use the money he earned from it wisely. Placing the vehicle into gear, he started his journey home. As he made his way down the street, his doleful mood was punctuated by the bright and nearly full moon, which had just begun to rise over the skyscrapers twinkling in the distance. If he had been in another mood, perhaps he may have noticed its quiet beauty. But all it did was make him more aware of his blatant lie to Margo and how her smile of hopeful gratitude told him she believed him, and the moon seemed to be winking at him in disappointment.

**xxxxx**

Joe smiled to himself as Gru drove off, and inserted the key into the ignition. He was contented. Gru had become his friend. Joe always loved the power of a cold beer and a family setting to bring people out of their caves and Joe began to think of his old life, and how he had messed up badly. But now, he had to look to the future for Holly's sake, and now Joe felt his new life was beginning to look up.

Except that, the blasted car refused to start.

"Come on girl." Joe said desperately, turning the key every few seconds. "Dammit." he yanked the steering wheel in dismay and stepped outside.

Joe popped the bonnet open and glanced around the compartment. The battery looked old and worn out, and one of the connections had oxidised. Perhaps a radiator leak had caused it with condensation buildup. He eyed the rest of the engine compartment and saw nothing else broken or out of the ordinary, and knew the battery would need jump starting.

"Great..." he said, looking around. There were no cars driving around near him that he could flag down, and he felt too embarrassed to go into the diner and ask for a jump start.

He sat on the car for a few minutes, waiting for a family to leave the place so he could ask. Though some did leave, but they walked down the street. He sighed and considered walking home himself, it was perhaps a 30 minute walk away.

As he grabbed a filthy brown jacket out of his car and moved back to the engine compartment to close the bonnet, just then a large, sleek black car pulled up next to him and a smartly dressed man stepped out from the drivers seat. He approached Joe calmly and took off his glasses, revealing piercing blue eyes. The man smiled welcomingly.

"Need a hand?"

**.**

**xxxxx**

**.**

**Authors Notes**

**Sorry it took me so long to update everyone. Real life reared its ugly head and I've been trying to find new employment, so I didn't have much time to do this chapter. I did about a page a day. Plus, I found it hard to write with 6 people at one table and I had to often edit conversations so they made sense (to me at least)**

**I hope you like this chapter, and the story so far!**


	11. Chapter 10: A Precarious Visit

Chapter 10

A Precarious Visit

"I wanna shoot the guns now."

Gru was a tired individual, but he was upbeat and in a good mood. The evening had gone smoothly, and he enjoyed himself more than he thought he would. He even thought Joe was a good guy, something that surprised him seeing as he hated the man just minutes before they arrived to the diner. Perhaps he was changing again, much as he did when he adopted the girls.

"No Edith, we aren't goeeng to shoot anytheeng now. We have a guest." Gru wagged his finger at his middle child. She was terribly hyperactive; a combination of cola and chocolate cake had made her that way. In fact, all four of the girls were hyper, but he thought Margo was doing it just because she would get away with it. Although she was smart and more adult like than her age suggested, she was still only 11 and sometimes the child side of her erupted forth and gave Gru headaches and added to his exhaustion. Sometimes, he felt she did it just to wind him up.

In any case, Gru didn't mind, as they had a reason to be in a good mood, like he did. But he couldn't abide by Edith demanding to shoot his weapons with him in the lab, not with Holly around. So, he decided to let them throw toilet paper around instead, and get the minions to clean it up when he took the girls to bed.

"Aww but I wanna do it now." She insisted impatiently. She threw some toilet paper around in Gru's living room, and Gru threw one back at her, laughing as she ducked suddenly and threw Gru a dark frown.

"No Edith. Eet ees final." Gru said firmly. She crossed her arms in disappointment. He raised his hand to his mouth and whispered. "Holly ees here, now be quiet."

Edith nodded in realisation, and she playfully held her left index finger to her mouth and then pretended to zip her lips.

Gru clenched his fist and playfully wagged it at her.

"Charge!" Agnes suddenly shouted, and Holly ran with her and they began to pound Gru with toilet paper. Soon Margo and Edith joined in, and Gru laughed as he was pelted with rolls upon rolls of the stuff.

"Dat ees eet!" Gru shouted. "I am going to get all of yoo!" He grabbed armfuls of thrown toilet paper off of the floor, and ran after Agnes, who screamed happily as Gru tried to throw the pile on top of her.

"No, help me Margo!" she shrieked exitedly, and Margo threw an accurate shot at Gru's face and a roll pinged off of it. He gasped in surprise, and tumbled onto the wood floor with a thwack.

"Now!" Edith shouted crazily, and she leapt onto him. "Dog pile!"

Gru chuckled and pretended to struggle as the girls clambered onto his splayed body. "No no pleese!" he laughed.

The girls grabbed the pile of toilet paper he dropped and wrapped it around him, Margo overseeing the whole "operation" and directing the girls where best to wrap. Holly was screeching like Edith, and their husky voices echoed in the living room. Agnes was giggling to Margo, who smiled wrily at her.

"What are yoo doeeng?" Gru laughed, as he felt the weight of ever increasing amounts toilet paper on him.

"Making you look like a mummy." Margo said plainly. She was panting a little.

"A mummy?" Gru laughed. "I coold just reep out of dis papor easily."

Edith pounded a fist lightly onto Gru's chest and she shot him a "don't you dare" look.

"Quick, now do the face." Margo ordered, and Gru felt Agnes and Holly's little hands hold his face down. Edith stood over him, her face in a smile of mischief, and she held up some toilet paper.

"Hold still Mr Gru." She smiled deviously.

Gru nodded at her. "Do eet."

"I'll go get the camera." Margo announced, and she ran out of the room and Gru's vision suddenly went dark as Edith wrapped some paper around his face.

"His nose looks funny." Holly said, and Gru could not help but frown. His nose was not funny. Ever.

"Mr Gru, stand up and do a zombie pose." Her heard Margo laugh. He could hear the girls chuckling, and he struggled to stand up without ripping the paper. He managed to, eventually, and he stretched his arms out and pretended to walk like a mummy he had seen in an old movie once. He made muffled moaning sounds and wandered around the room. The girls made pretend frightful screams and he could hear them running around, and there was the sound of the camera clicking every so often.

"He looks funny!" Agnes shouted. Gru wandered around some more.

"I am goeeng to eet you all!" Gru moaned, and Edith screeched with mock terror. He ran towards the source of the girl's noise, but, unfortunately, she was standing just by his rhinoceros chair. When he made no indication of stopping his zombie like walk, she dodged his large figure and gasped as he bashed into it with a dull thud and he exhaled sharply. "Owww…" he slid down the arm of the chair. The room was silent, and he heard Margo gasp.

As Gru slid down onto the floor winded, he felt his chin hit the armrest. His eyes widened as he felt the big red base entrance button depress under his chin and in an instant, the machinery in his living room whirred into life.

He was violently shoved by the moving chair into the centre of his room, and he tore himself from the toilet paper and leapt to avoid the cannon lift device from near crushing him as it came down. He looked at the other half os his living room ascend towards the ceiling, and his panicked eyes flickered between each of his daughters. They all wore a similar worried expression, and each of them was completely silent. He then risked a glance at Holly. She stared at the movement, and her mouth was wide open in total awe.

Gru cringed as the machinery came to a stop, and after a big screeching noise, there was silence. Everyone was frozen in place, not daring to be the first to move. His face was still covered with the toilet paper mummy mask, and he removed it violently.

The silence lasted forever, it seemed. Until, that is, Holly spoke.

"Whoa…" she said, drawing in a deep breath and looking at the glowing blue light at the other end of the room, which was emanating from the lab entrance shaft.

Gru closed his eyes and shook his head. "I am dreeming, I am dreeming."

All he heard Margo say was "Umm…". He frowned, his oldest child, who was as smart as she was quick witted, could only manage to say that. It was perhaps her that punctuated the seriousness of the situation for Gru. He stood up and dusted himself off, and he clasped his hands together, trying to think of something, anything, to say.

Gru closed his eyes again, and then he heard a little giggle of joy. He opened his eyes and saw Holly standing in the cannon. "No-" he shouted, but by then it was too late. The metal and glass tube was hoisted onto the shaft lift, and in an instant, she was gone.

Gru frowned at his three girls, who all looked away from his furious gaze.

"Yoo shoold have stopped her from getting in de toobe!" he bellowed, pointing towards the blue glow of the shaft.

Margo opened her mouth to speak, but Gru held up his hand to silence her. It would be about ten minutes before the lift would return. He wanted total silence for that time, so he could consider his options.

**xxxxx**

Holly travelled downwards for about 30 seconds, and all she could see was a circular concrete shaft. Her mouth was still agape and she did her best to process what was going on. Seconds after her mouth closed, the concrete tube was gone. In its place was a vast metal cavern, and she could see tunnels, walkways, large round doors and staircases leading to different places. Her mouth dropped open again.

She tried to count how many walkways and doors there were, but she couldn't. She was only five, and by the time she reached thirty she replaced the number with "Lots" instead.

What was the most fascinating thing about her journey though, were the little yellow people who milled around. Some were grouped together, perhaps chatting, some were carrying these very odd looking pointed tubes of metal, and some drove funny looking cars. A couple noticed her, and they pointed. She couldn't hear anything, the glass tube encased her in silence as the descended. The little yellow men who did take notice of her looked panicky, and she saw them run around randomly and then disappear behind doors.

She took everything in, and processed it in the only way a child could. Her imagination was running wild. What was all of this? Just as a thought crept into her head, she felt a sudden jolt, and the lift stopped moving and all thought was out of her head. The glass slid open with a noise akin to air being sucked through a plastic straw, and she stepped, cautiously, onto the metal walkway that lay in front of her. She looked up, and all she could see was a dark long tube shaped shaft and walkways crisscrossing it. Where she was though, there was nothing, save for the walkway.

"Cool." She said as her foot made a metal pattering sound as she walked. She expected a lot of noise, but it was strangely quiet for such a busy place. The sounds of machinery and talking reached her ears and she tried to guess at what those machines were doing and what the voices were saying, but it all sounded distant.

She walked onwards for about five minutes. The walkway sunddely forked into three different pathways, each one had a sign over it that said something.

"Red… Blue… and White." She said to herself ponderingly. "Hmm."

On the floor were coloured striped, one red, one blue and one white. She walked down the centre path. The walkway she was on seemed, after a good fifty metres, to go off on random tangents and she felt strangely alone for the moment, and she walked on further. The place was strange, it was made out of shiny metal and there was not a single thing to see, apart from that the large lift shaft had become a horizontal tunnel. There was light at the end of it, so Holly made her way towards it.

What seemed like a moment later, she was at another corridor that had several large round metal doors lining it. Each one, like most other doors she had seen on her way down, had a sign above it. She couldn't understand most of the signs, as hard as she tried to read them. She read each one, and gave up and returned to the first door.

"My-nee-ons?" she said ponderingly. "Whats a myneeon?" She shrugged and decided to go through this door.

She knocked on the door politely, and each tap made virtually no noise, and her knuckles hurt a little from the solidity of the door. She waited for a moment, and no one answered. It was still very quiet, and she had not come across anyone or anything of note that she could play with.

She tapped the door again, this time firmer, and still nothing happened. She crossed her arms. "How rude." She huffed angrily. She was startled as the door slid open rapidly with a loud clunking noise out of nowhere, and she closed her eyes. She heard a little gasp, and she opened her eyes slowly. As her vision came into focus, she was stood face to face with one of the yellow people she had seen before.

The little yellow thing stood there and stared at her. His face looked human enough, and she could tell he was shocked and confused, and they eyed each other up for a few seconds. His eyes were big and friendly looking, and they had strange metal goggles covering them. He wore denim overalls with black boots, and little black rubber gloves covered strange looking three-fingered hands. He held them up as if recoiling in disgust when she stepped closer.

Holly smiled at the thing, and held out her hand. "Hi. I'm Holly. What's your name?"

The yellow creature looked at her hand and back at her face, and he seemed to settle down. "Kevin." He said, and he shook her hand carefully.

"What are you doing?" Holly asked innocently. Kevin looked totally out of his depth, and he regarded Holly desperately.

"Uhh…" he replied. "Me gar carry de bomba." He held up his arms to imitate carrying something heavy.

"I like you Kevin." Holly said sweetly and she grabbed his hand. "Let's explore!"

Kevin whimpered at the little blonde girl yanked him down towards a doorway and they disappeared behind it.

**xxxxx**

"So, what do we do?" Edith asked dismally. She glumly stood in the metal tube with her two sisters and Gru. It was quite crowded, and she struggled to stand comfortably. Gru's elbow occasionally knocked her head into the glass with a light thud when the lift shuddered, but, to her chagrin, he didn't seem to notice.

"Yoo and Margo will look in de Blue Zone, me and Agnes will look in de Red Zone." Gru said angrily to her.

"What about the White Zone?" Margo asked forebodingly. Agnes gasped quietly.

Gru frowned at her. "Eef she ees in de white zone… den I don't know." He said, sounding unsettled.

Margo looked up at him and she looked horrified. "What the… what do you mean?" she asked, both angry and shocked.

"Umm… nothing." Gru muttered, realising what he had just said.

The four of them stepped out of the tube, and Edith breathed in, relieved to be out of the cramped space. "Finally." She grumbled, stretching her legs.

"Remember, Blue Zone only." Gru pointed to Edith, and she nodded. "We weell meet in the lab eef we cannot find her."

"Yes, we know." Margo huffed and she and Edith made their way down the walkway. Agnes looked up to Gru and she looked worried.

"What's going to happen?" she asked him worriedly, and she clutched his hand for comfort.

"Notheeng, honey." Gru said. "She'll just end up in de lab weeth Nefario like yoo did when you forst trespassed."

"As long as she goes in de white zone at leest." He added, and he picked Agnes up and he paced down the tunnel towards the doorway just ahead.

They made their way after Margo and Edith and reached the 3 tunnelled fork in the route, and they made their way left, which was the Red Zone. The right walkway said Blue Zone. Gru ignored the centre route entirely, and he ushered Agnes away from it was she went to walk down it. The sign above read White Zone.

**xxxxx**

"Kevin, where am I?" Holly asked, still dragging the minion along. He did his best to resist her grip, but he failed. A five year olds grip could be vice like if they were determined enough, and she was. Exploration was her forte.

"Mek me gussa." He replied impishly.

Holly looked at him, confusedly. She giggled. "Speak properly." He poked him in the chest domineeringly. He looked at her exasperatedly and he shrugged.

"Eengleesh." He replied. "Fah. Pooka." He flailed his arms in nonchalant defeat, and pointed at a sign, and Holly followed it. "Lab. Lab. Regrad lab." He said repeatedly.

"Lab?" Holly considered. "Like… Dexter's Lab?" The cogs in the engine of her imagination were working overtime, and scenes from her favourite cartoon flashed in her mind. She smiled devilishly.

"Lab. Lab." Kevin repeated.

"Lets go!" she shouted. Kevin was now the leader, and he relished dragging her this time. He could run fast, and Holly struggled to maintain a similar speed, and Kevin laughed to himself at the turned tables.

Occasionally they would pass a cluster of other yellow people, who would all stop what they were doing and look at her, either shocked or confused.

"No Agnes mek Gru?" one asked her as they sped past. She looked confusedly at Kevin at the mentioning of Agnes's name. Kevin had a look of determination on his face, and he dragged her ever onwards, ignoring her prying stare.

She saw many interesting things on her way, she walked past what reminded her of her school canteen, she walked past a huge metal cavern that had monitors and desks everywhere, and more of the yellow things crowding the place. They tapped away at their big keyboards, and the cavern vanished again.

Kevin made them press on, as much as she tried to slow him so she could explore these new and interesting areas.

They reached a doorway, this one much bigger and more elaborate than Holly had seen before on her travels. She gasped at it, and Kevin let go of her hand. He looked at her for a moment, and he gulped, and he stood up to the door. A little beeping sound registered his presence, and Holly cringed as loud clunk sounded.

The doorway began to open, and the vibrations of unseen machinery moving the enormous metal door tickled her feet. The movement stopped with a harsh thud, and she could barely see, the light coming from the opened doorway was bright white. She squinted into the light and raised her arm to cover her eyes.

She felt Kevin's hand grab her free one, and she walked forward again, enveloped by the white incandescence.

She could hear bubbling noises, glass tapping sounds and footsteps. She opened her eyes and they adjusted to the light. She heard another gasp, much like she had done when she first met Kevin. This gasp though, was deeper, and whoever it was sounded old.

"What the?" she heard a croaky man's voice say. His accent was funny, like Gru's, but it was not the same accent she noticed. Her eyes began to focus, and she was greeted with the sight of an old man with whispy white hair, in an equally white lab coat. He stood very still, and his face was an impenetrable mask of indifference. "Who are you?" he asked calmly.

"Uhh…" Holly muttered. She sidestepped closer to Kevin, who she noticed was still next to her. The old man wore goggles like Kevin, though his were black and scary. She held Kevin's hand, and he recoiled from it slightly.

"Who is she?" He turned to Kevin, who whimpered.

"Ey not know." Kevin stuttered. The mans gaze was piercing. Holly gulped.

"I'm Holly." The old man snorted at her. "Are you Dexter?"

Nefario grunted loudly at her. "No." He answered indifferently.

"Then who are you? Why are you in Dexter's lab?" She asked innocently, but her confidence had risen and she felt she could stand up to him.

Nefario raised his eyebrow at the child. "Who am _I_?" Nefario chuckled at her insolence. "I am Doctor Nefario. I am not this Dexter person you speak of. Why are you in MY lab?"

"Um…" Holly considered. "I don't know." She shrugged and Nefario growled.

He reached up in the air and pulled down a microphone Holly hadn't even noticed was there, and a screen flickered to life on the wall. The screen showed the toilet paper strewn living room she was in moments ago, but it was deathly quiet quiet. She stood there completely still with Kevin, and she held his hand tightly for support. He winced.

"Gru? Come in Gru." The old man bellowed into the microphone. "We have… a _trespasser_."

Holly shuddered at that word, she didn't know what it meant, but it sounded ominous and serious.

There was no reply though, and Nefario sighed. "Gru… come in Gru." he said again, forcefully this time. Still no answer. "Great." He barked angrily.

Nefario let go of the horn shaped microphone and it sprung back into the air, bouncing a few times before settling. Nefario turned back to the still Holly, and he raised his eyebrow.

"Well now." He said calmly, while rubbing his chin, and he knelt down at Holly. "We could always use another test subject for the serum." He smiled, and Kevin looked at Holly with a flash of apprehension. Holly looked back at Nefario, and she frowned.

"I am not a test subject. I am a little girl." She said sassily, and she stomped her foot for effect and held her arms at her waist.

"Is that so?" Nefario chuckled. "I never would have guessed."

His sarcasm was lost on the five year old, and she grumbled.

"You are a meany." She chided.

Nefario ignored her and tapped on one of the bubbling glass orbs that hung from a myriad selection of pipes and metal brackets. Holly took the opportunity to wander to another part of the large circular room while his back was turned. She picked up a remote control, and it had a little wheel on it. She remembered once a few months ago playing with a remote control car in a toy store, and she guessed this was the same. She saw a cookie begin to move as she twisted the wheel. Holly dropped the control as if it was red hot, and she gasped. She looked at the cookie on the table just in front of her, it had little legs sprouted out of it, and it sat there, unmoving.

The red orb that extended from the top of it faced her, and she waved her hand in front of it. Nothing happened, and she plucked up the courage to pick up the control again. She carefully and slowly moved her hand to the wheel again, and she cringed and bit her bottom lip and turned it.

The cookie moved again, and she laughed. "Cool!"

She began to twist the wheel faster and the cookie responded similarly, and she began to giggle at the remote control cookie. For now, she didn't notice the red button on the top of the remote.

**xxxxx**

Margo and Edith asked every minion on their travels through the Blue Zone, but none had seen Holly. They asked Paul desperately if he had seen her. This particular minion was usually quite observant and attentive, and even he hadn't seen her, much to the girls disappointment. All of the minions they asked looked at them nonchalantly, as if they were being silly for asking if they had seen a little girl in the lab. They _were _little girls.

Margo sighed and she rubbed her head. "Well, we can't find her." She said to Edith, who had picked up a wrench and was swinging it around like a sword, obviously giving up entirely on the search.

Margo grabbed Edith's swinging arm and she pried the wrench from her. "This is serious Edith!"

Edith shrugged. "I know." She replied ignorantly.

"Then stop swinging stuff around like an ape and help me!" Margo ordered and Edith began to look in stupid places. They were currently in a mess hall, and the minions ignored them as they ate, the girls felt like they weren't even there. "Edith, she won't be in the dishwasher." Margo sighed.

"That's where I'd hide." Edith said indifferently. She moved to climb into it and Margo held her shoulder.

"Edith for goodness sake!" Margo spat. She was fast losing her patience, and all Edith did was smile at her fiendishly.

"Please just help me." Margo crossed her arms. "I don't want to have to tell Gru you cheated at eating the steak."

Edith frowned and cross her arms back. "Fine." She hissed. "I'll help properly."

Margo and Edith continued their search until they reached the end of the Blue Zone.

"Better head back, she might be in the Red Zone." Margo said dimly, giving up.

"I think we should just go to the White Zone." Edith mentioned casually shrugging her shoulders. "She might have ended up in the lab like we did."

Margo considered her options, and remembered the white zone was where they ended up on their first visit to the lab. The three of them had ignored most of the side paths and doorways and just walked forward, and eventually they ended up in Nefario's lab. Margo wondered why Gru was so worried about her going into the White Zone, since it didn't seem that dangerous to Margo.

Margo nodded. "Yeah, better just go to the lab then."

**xxxxx**

"No! Put that down!" Nefario bellowed, and he moved, quite rapidly for someone of his age, towards Holly and he snatched the remote off of her.

"Hey! That's mine!" she shouted with annoyance. Nefario help the remote out of her reach and she repeatedly hopped to try and grab it off of him.

Nefario smiled at her darkly as she angrily gave up trying to grab the remote off of him. "Meany." She said poking her tongue out at him.

Nefario made his way back to the chemistry table and carried on with whatever it was he was doing, blatantly ignoring Holly. She surveyed the room for more things to touch or play with but didn't see a lot. She looked back over to Nefario and trotted over to him.

"What are you doing?" she asked sweetly, making him jump. A bottle of bright green fluid flew into the air and Nefario grunted and clasped his chest, breathing heavily. He glanced up and saw the bottle tumbling in the air, and he gasped, stretching his arms out to grab it before it hit anything.

Nefario caught his breath, and Holly stifled a laugh. "Don't do that." He hissed.

"What are you doing?" she asked again, trying to sound adorable.

"I am doing important stuff. Now run along, annoying child." He said impatiently while trying to place the green bottle into a clasp. He assumed the girl was another child Gru adopted randomly, just like he did with the other girls, so he didn't think anything of her being in the lab.

Holly saw a different, smaller doorway that she hadn't noticed before and she smiled curiously.

'OK. Bye then mister!" she trotted over to the door vanished behind it. Nefario ignored her and carried on, until he stopped suddenly and gulped. He then looked up, suddenly aware of the doorway she had just gone through. Nefario read the sign above the door, and it said in ominous red lettering: "Bomb Factory and Disposal".

"Oh… great." He croaked. Kevin gasped too.

Nefario ran as fast as his old legs would carry him to the doorway, and he shouted "Wait! Come back!" desperately, and Kevin chased after the scientist, muttering unintelligible gibberish. Margo and Edith walked in just at this point, and they glanced at each other as the metal door closed sharply. Margo read the sign above the door.

"Bomb disposal area?" Margo shrieked in panic. "We gotta do something!"

Margo saw the microphone above her and she hopped to reach it, but it was too high for her. She looked for the red stool she remembered that was there on her first visit, but couldn't find it. Edith realised what Margo was trying to do and she clicked her fingers as a plan formed in her mind.

"Give me a boost!" she said, and Margo nodded hurriedly.

Edith clambered onto her bigger sisters back and grunted. "Wow Edith, you are heavy." She gasped.

"Shut up. Now lift." Edith ordered. Margo groaned as she tried to lift her sister up, who was sat on her shoulders. "I can…just…" Edith struggled.

The microphone just brushed her fingertips and she couldn't grip it. "Margo, stand on your toes." She strained, still trying to reach the microphone.

Margo nodded again, and she grunted and heaved onto her toes. "Got it!" Edith shouted in victory, and Margo collapsed onto the floor.

"Ow." She whined as Edith clambered off of her. "Give it here."

Edith handed her the horn and Margo flicked a button on it that said "Loudspeaker".

"Mr Gru? It's Margo." She could hear her voice echoing beyond the doorways and walls of the lab, and hoped that it meant her voice was playing on a base-wide loudspeaker system. "If you can hear me, Nefario has gone after Holly in the bomb disposal area and we are gonna go there too."

Margo's voice was strained and panicked, and Edith thumbed her up. "Hurry up!" Margo added and she let go of the microphone and grabbed Edith's hand.

"Come on!" she shouted and the two girls made their way to the doorway.

Elsewhere in the base, Gru and Agnes shared a panicked look as they heard the worried voice of Margo over the speaker just above their heads, and they made their way to the bomb disposal area. Luckily, Gru knew shortcuts, so they would be there quickly.

**xxxxx**

"Wow!"

Holly was greeted with a sight that would send most sane adults over the edge into insanity. There were bombs. Everywhere. Not that she knew this, of course, she was only five and just wandered around, awe inspired. She saw the strange things being carried by more minions or by metallic claws on hanging runners. The minions were so single minded in their tasks that they ignored her totally, the only attention they paid her was to tell her (from what she could guess at least) to move out of the way, which she did, only because the tubes they carried had a very sharp pointed end on them.

The place was huge, much bigger than anything she had seen so far, the circular cavern she was standing in was vast in width and height and she could only just make out the other side. She poked her head just over the metal railings that lined the walkway she was on and looked down to the floor. Huge vents were dotted on the floor, and in the centre there was a charred metal pedestal that was at least as big as the footprint of her apartment building, she thought. She looked up, and saw the cavern was dome shaped and tapered to a large circle in the centre, and there were large robotic arms holding the metal plate on the ceiling in place. Little did she know, just one month ago, Gru launched his rocket to the moon from this very room, but it was now a decent place to dispose of bombs and new walkways had been built over it to connect other parts of the base together for easier access.

She watched as some of the minions on walkways lower than hers lifted their pointed metal containers over the railing and throw them away. A whistling sound could be distantly heard, then she saw a flash of light and a dull concussive boom. Her eyes sparkled in the light, and she watched the occasional flares of light below her with astonishment.

She was suddenly snapped out of her hypnotised wonderment as she could hear echoed footsteps coming from the dimly lit corridor behind her. She placed her hand to her ear and listened intently, and she heard the glum old man from the lab shouting something, his voice was panicked and strained from lack of breath.

Holly giggled, and thought it was a game. She laughed playfully and began to run around in no particular direction, and the minions, now more aware of her, began to rush around to avoid her lest they dropped the bombs they carried. Holly laughed and shouted, "You'll never catch me!" just as Nefario came into view.

"I'm getting too old for this." Nefario breathed heavily. "Children and mad scientists do not mix."

"Ya." Kevin agreed with a nod.

Nefario and Kevin paused and slumped down to catch their breath. "I'm glad you minions can't breed." Nefario mentioned glumly. Kevin looked at him with confusion and Nefario waved him off and he stood up, and proceeded to follow Holly.

**xxxxx**

Margo and Edith appeared in the same spot just a few moments later, and they glanced around the cavern panicked.

"Looks like Gru's changed the rocket place to a bomb disposal place." Edith realised. "I didn't know that!

"Neither did I." Margo admitted, and her thoughts flashed with annoyance at Gru, who had neglected to tell them. "So that's why he was so worried about Holly going into the white zone, she might have ended up here..."

"There!" Edith shouted over her mutterings, and she pointed towards a strutted pathway above them.

Margo followed the direction of Edith's finger, and she could hear Holly playing and laughing and Nefario shouting for her to calm down. Margo saw Holly leap onto a bomb precariously perched on a ledge, and Nefario was very suddenly calm and slow moving. He begged desperately for the little girl to get down. The bomb was rocking dangerously, and Holly seemed unaware of its lethality and the perilous position she was in, and she was giggling hysterically and riding it like a cowgirl. The bomb looked like it had been dropped, and the walkway was slightly buckled underneath it. Margo also took note that this walkway had no railings. Her eyes were drawn to an access hatch that swung open further up the cavern.

"Its Mr Gru!" Margo bellowed and she pointed. Gru appeared from the access hatch and he clambered down a ladder with Agnes clinging to his collar.

"Mr Gru!" Margo shouted through cupped hands. "She's below you!"

She could see Gru looking down at Holly. "Get down from dere!" Gru shouted to her, but the little girl ignored him.

"Quick!" Margo shouted, noticing a minion car parked farther up on the walkway in front of them. Edith was just big enough to sit in the drivers seat. "You gotta drive this thing, Edith." Margo said apprehensively as they slid to a halt next to it.

In another occasion, Edith may have relished the opportunity, but now was a serious situation, and she clambered into the seat without thinking about it and started it up. Luckily for Edith, the most important functions of Gru's devices was usually activated by pressing a big red button, and in the case of starting the car it was no different. She wiped her forehead with relief as it chugged into life, thankful the thing didn't explode instead. Margo held onto the little pod that was suspended on a metal arm at the back of the minion car.

"Gru said they work with the wheel and the pedals. You turn the wheel in the direction you want to go." Margo explained as the machine shuddered under the power of its little engine. "The right pedal makes it move, and the left pedal slows it down."

Edith nodded and she hovered her foot over the right pedal.

Margo added, "Just don't push the right pedal too -AAAAAAAHHHHH." She screamed as the vehicle shot off down the walkway. Edith laughed, the thing was faster than she expected, she could hear her sister screeching, but she didn't want to slow down, it was too fun and they needed to get to Holly, fast.

"Edith! Slow dooooown!" Margo wailed with her eyes firmly closed, and she clung onto the pod for dear life. Edith looked at the speedometer and it read 15mph, and she slumped dimly.

"I'm going fifteen miles per hour Margo." She shouted from the drivers seat.

Margo opened her eyes, and realised they were in fact going quite slow. "Oh… right." She sniggered with embarrassment.

They reached a tunnel that had several intersections leading in different directions, and after a few wrong guesses and Edith trying to work out how to reverse the car, they managed to reach the same walkway that Holly and Nefario were on.

**xxxxx**

Gru considered leaving Agnes on the walkway he was on and using his incredible acrobatic skills to swing and leap to where Holly was.

He saw Nefario holding his hands up and trying to calm the girl, who had just realised the bomb she had climbed onto was dangerously perched on the ledge. She looked wild eyed at Nefario and held out her arms to him, making the bomb rock. The walkway creaked every few seconds, and he saw that the bomb was bending it out of shape with its weight. Eventually the bomb would slide off, taking Holly with it. He had to act, and fast.

"Agnes, wait here." He ordered the panicked little girl, and she nodded. "Take my lucky scarf. Hold onto eet very tight, and eef you doo eet weell breeng good luck and help me rescue Holly. OK?"

She nodded again silently, and he handed her the scarf. She snatched it off of him and held it tightly in both arms. Gru removed his thick leather jacket too, realising its weight would impede him. Minions had gathered near him and on other walkways, aghast at the escalated situation below them. A couple trotted over and comforted Agnes, and Gru nodded to them in gratitude.

Gru stood up straight, breathed in and cracked his knuckles. He prepared himself for the gruelling task of leaping from a dozen walkways and swinging himself to Holly's rescue. Dodging ultra fast missiles would be nothing compared to this, he thought.

He breathed in again and smiled to Agnes, who returned it sheepishly, and he leapt, prompting a little gasp from Agnes as he plummeted downwards disappearing out of sight. Gru flew down and held out his arms, and grabbed the first railing in reach. It creaked under the sudden extra weight, and Gru used his momentum to fling himself off of it to the next one, pushing himself off the base with his legs to increase his speed again. He grunted as the next one came within reach, and he grabbed it. Gru hurriedly lifted himself up and sprinted onwards, as the next walkway was too far for him to leap from where he landed. As he pressed on, the sound of Nefario's calming words and Holly's wild panicking became louder. Gru was only about three leaps from them when he saw the minion car from the tunnel at the end of Holly's walkway come into view. Gru's eyes widened, the extra weight of the minion car would surely tip the bomb off of the ledge. He gasped as he saw Margo holding onto the suspended pod and Edith's pink hatted head could be seen in the drivers seat, and he frowned in determination and he prepared himself for his next leap.

**xxxxx**

"I can't get down." Holly screamed in terror, clinging to the bomb. She whimpered and closed her eyes tightly.

"Just don't move." Nefario insisted calmly, his hands raised. "Try not to move, child."

"Girl met bomba! No!" Kevin bellowed in his chipmunk-esque voice as equally panic stricken as Holly.

Holly nodded slowly, and Nefario crept closer. Each step made the metal walkway groan and Holly would screech, making her fidget in panic and her movement would cause the bomb to tip a little more. Nefario stopped and considered his options. He hadn't noticed Margo or Edith in the minion car speeding towards them, or Gru leaping to her rescue, his attention was on the girl.

Nefario never usually had any interest in children or the situations they got themselves into, but for some reason Nefario was panicking and worried. Perhaps it was exposure to Gru's other daughters that led him to end up this way.

"Kevin, can you reach her?" Nefario asked quickly. Kevin nodded and he tiptoed slowly to the tilting bomb. He was light and each step didn't make the walkway shudder or groan like Nefario did.

"Kevin is going to grab you." Nefario announced to Holly, holding his hand up and gesturing to the girl who had just opened her eyes to look at him in fear. "Hold his hand, he is going to pull you off."

"No! I'm too scared." Holly croaked. She clung onto the bomb tighter as it rocked again, and it was dangerously close to falling.

"Kevin... I have an idea." Nefario whispered so that she wouldn't hear. "Tickle her."

Kevin looked at Nefario with shock, and he glanced at Holly and then back to Nefario. "Tickle met gorl? Nefario se booloo makaneka-!"

"No, just trust me." He shouted over the minions ramblings. "Tickling her will make her let go of the bomb and you can pull her off!" Nefario explained desperately. He saw the minion car in his peripheral vision and he glanced at it anxiously. It was about two hundred metres from him, and he inhaled sharply through his agape mouth. Like Gru, he realised the extra weight of the minion-mobile on the buckling walkway would send the bomb tumbling down, and he looked back at Kevin, who began to quake in his boots under the pressure of Nefario's orders.

"Now! Do it now!" Nefario ordered. He could feel the walkway buckling further as the minion car got closer.

"Kevin! Do eet!" Gru shouted from the walkway just above them as he clambered onto it. Gru realised he would either be too late, or the judder of his landing might exacerbate the bombs tilting, so he had to stay put.

Kevin gulped, he plucked up his courage and ran to the whimpering girl and began to tickle her. She didn't laugh, she schreeched louder as the bomb began to tip. "No don't!" she squeaked, but she couldn't help but loosen her grip. The bomb began to tip over more sharply and a loud metal groan echoed into the hallway and Kevin howled as he grabbed the little girl firmly as the bomb finally tipped over the edge.

Gru, Margo, Edith, Agnes, and Nefario watched in horror as the bomb disappeared off of the walkway, but Kevin grabbed Holly just in time as it fell and he leapt onto the walkway. The bomb whistled as it plummeted, and Holly held onto the minion tightly as he fainted and landed on the floor. Holly carried on holding the minion tightly, ignorant of his conscious state. The bomb struck a walkway on its way down and a harsh metal screech echoed in the vast chamber, but it didn't detonate.

Gru jumped down onto the walkway to join them and check Holly, and the bomb eventually exploded beneath them with a bright yellow flash which lit up the cavern brightly. The wind from the blast rushed past everyone for a few seconds until it died down. Margo and Edith hopped out of the minion car and darted to Holly and Kevin. Gru knelt beside them, and he put his hand on Holly's shoulder.

"Der der." he comforted her. She looked up at him. "Are yoo OK?" he asked kindly. Holly nodded.

"Dad said I wouldn't be very good at riding horses yet." she mumbled, out of breath. "But I rode one anyway, and these horses explode."

Gru chuckled heartily in relief, and Holly frowned. "What?" She asked with ire. It was as though the seriousness of the situation was beyond her.

"Dat was not a horse." Gru laughed, patting her on the head.

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**XXXXXX**

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**Authors notes**

**Whew, that was an intense chapter. I had a lot of fun writing this. The next update should be in the next few days/week or so as I have a few interviews for a new job so I won't have as much time to spend on it. This chapter didn't take me so long because I've had a bit of free time to do it. I hope you enjoyed it!**

**Amelie: Thank you for the very kind words! I'm glad you like the story so far, and I hope you like the rest of it as I update it! By the way, your English was perfect ^_^**

**Invader Daxx: Funny review :-). I'm glad you like it.**

**Massinvader: Thank you for your kind reviews! I'm glad you like the story so far. I base a lot of my own interpretations of Edith (using the movie as a foundation of course) on my 9 year old niece, who is so like the movie Edith its scary. She's mischievous, dastardly and loves icky stuff and extremely curious, but she's very sweet and kind too. I often call her Edith when she has little hissy fits because they remind me of Edith in the movie, and she gets even more annoyed at me for calling her Edith (since she knows how Edith acts). Its quite good that you relate to her so well, being able to relate to a character makes the story more interesting I think. I hope you like the rest of the story as it is updated! :-)**


	12. Chapter 11: Gru's Small Silver Salvation

Chapter 11

Gru's Small Silver Salvation

"I would sincerely like to know how you plan to overcome this obstacle, Gru."

Nefario stood over Gru as he always did, quietly expectant. Gru had slumped in his chair in the laboratory, entrusting Margo with the task of taking the girls upstairs to bed. He needed to think, as his worst nightmare had come true.

"I don't know." Gru admitted with a sigh. His voice was strained, and his exhaustion was obvious.

"That's good." Nefario chided. He laughed sarcastically, a sound Gru had almost forgotten. Nefario never laughed, really.

"Dis eesn't funny, Nefario!" Gru said with a raised voice. "She saw everytheeng. How will I explain dis to her fathor?" Gru held his hands out in anger.

"I could use the memory erasure beam." Nefario pondered. He shuffled to Gru's desk and pressed a button on the keyboard that lay there. A virtually invisible and transparent screen flicked into life, and Gru squinted under its sudden brightness, despite the already intense ambient lighting in the lab.

On the screen Gru's large G symbol flashed, then faded into a blue screent hat then quickly flickered into a programme Gru hardly used, but recognised. The weapon Nefario was talking about appeared, and it spun around in 3D. Gru eyed it warily, he knew Nefario had completed this weapon some time ago but they had never used it. It looked quite imposing made out of chrome, much different than the usual dark blue plastic construction Gru's other weapons had. It looked heavy, too, and its age was apparent. It was built along the same time as his flying ship and his tank car, and it looked similar to them, with sharp edges and rivets dotting overlapping plates of metal. The only thing that didn't look odd was the handle.

"I'll go get it." Nefario offered plainly.

"Wait, wait wait there." Gru stopped him as he turned. "We can't just shoot dis little girl weeth dis gun Nefario!"

"Yes we can. How else are you going to stop her from talking about it?" Nefario said calmly. The fact that he was so concerned about the little girl moments ago, but now was seemingly back to his old indifference confused Gru somewhat. He chose not to ask about it, instead he pried further about the gun. It was, unfortunately, the most viable option.

"Well… what does eet do and how does it work?" Gru asked with defeat.

"Well, you select the hour and time you wish to erase. It can tell which memories were created when based on the," he cleared his throat, "chemical decay of the electrical impulses."

Gru raised his eyebrow, and Nefario noted his confused look. "When you store a memory, its created with electrical impulses in the brain, yes?"

Gru nodded briskly.

Some excitement and giddiness has appeared in Nefario's voice and he continued. "Well, the older the memory gets, the trace elements left behind by those impulses decay. So, the weapon looks at this age, and also the biological age of the target," he cleared his throat again, "and it guesses which memories to erase based on the day and hour you programme in."

Gru stopped, and his pupils contracted a little. "Wait, so it… guesses?" Gru was not convinced at all.

Nefario shuffled uncomfortably. "Its not perfect, but it's the best way other than a lobotomy. Shall I arrange that instead?"

Gru's face contorted with rising choler. "Nefario, we are _not _lobotomising my daughters best friend!"

"It was just a suggestion." Nefario murmured. "This is your only option other than the truth Gru. Telling her father, or using this. Your choice, old friend."

Gru snorted inaudibly at Nefario's "old friend" comment, it seemed to punctuate Nefario's indifference to Gru's situation. It made him feel more alone.

"Get me de gun…" Gru sighed. "I just… want to have a look at eet."

Nefario's goggles flashed and he motioned for a minion to step over, and ordered it to bring the weapon out of storage. Moments later, the minion returned with it, and Gru noticed it was no larger than a pistol, which was odd since most of his weapons were large and unwieldy compared to most weapons you would see in the military. Nefario placed the weapon gently onto the table.

"Remember Gru, this is for your own good." He said seriously, tapping the weapon pointedly.

Gru eyed it wearily, and his mind flashed to the happy little girl with the unkempt blonde hair.

"You said dat last time." Gru chided.

Nefario overlooked his friends bitter comment. "Yes, well it was then, too."

**xxxxx**

A few hundred feet above Gru and Nefario, the mood was a little more cheerful. Holly had seen some of the most interesting things in her life, and her giddiness was uncontainable. She described everything she had seen with awe and with a five year olds vocabulary. Every third word was either "amazing", or "huge" or simply "wow".

Agnes shared her glee with the three Gru daughters, and they chatted away about all of the places they had explored, which wowed Holly even more since there were places she hadn't visited yet and she was desperate to. Margo tried her best to be upbeat with the other girls, but her mind was on Gru and Nefario. If Gru ever asked the girls to leave his lab while he talked with "Uncle" Nefario, she assumed it was serious. She had only once tried to eavesdrop after a particularly serious sounding "Go upstairs now, Margo." order from her adoptive father, but she was caught and decided it wasn't worth the risk again. She knew deep down they were discussing Holly, and what they were going to do about her finding the lab. It worried her.

"I can't believe how huge the place was!" Holly chirped excitedly. Margo was holding hers and Agnes's hand as they clambered up the spiral staircase to the bedroom to change. Margo nodded and smiled at her, but didn't say anything.

"Kevin was nice, too." She added. Agnes nodded in agreement, and the girls ran ahead of Margo and Edith. Margo paused, and Edith stopped next to her older sister. They both sighed and turned to face one another.

"So…" Edith began.

"So." Margo replied. Both of them knew that Holly was a problem.

"How is Mr Gru going to stop her from telling Joe? Is he in trouble?" Edith asked.

"I don't know. Maybe Joe will be OK with it is Mr Gru is honest." Margo said, though she wasn't sure he would be. Edith's dim facial expression reflected her thoughts.

"So we tell Joe that our dad has a secret base and he stole the moon by shrinking it?" Edith mocked. "Oh and that he has little yellow things that work for him… and that Holly nearly blew up from a bomb she jumped on?"

"Look, I know it sounds crazy… but Joe's a nice guy, and he likes Mr gru and us. A lot." Margo tried desperately to convince Edith. "Maybe, you just don't know."

"I don't theenk we weell be telleeng Joe anytheeng." Gru said from behind them. They both gasped and turned to face their father standing ominously over them.

"Oh! Mr Gru." Margo answered nervously. "We-"

Gru cut her off with a dark frown and she stopped talking. She noticed he was holding something behind his back, and when she tried to look at it he turned away to block her, and she became suspicious of him.

"Get readee for bed, I weell come read to yoo in a moment."

Edith nodded and trotted into the room ahead of her sister. Margo gave Gru a look of questioning that he ignored. She turned towards her room without a word and he watched her vanish behind the doorway. He pulled the weapon out from behind his back and looked at it carefully. He sighed and stroked his bald head. Using it in front of his daughters was not a good idea, so he would have to rethink his strategy. He placed it in the drawer of side table in the hallway and walked into their bedroom to read to them.

**xxxxx**

"You know, I'd have been lost without you, friend." Joe thanked the stranger. The car park had emptied in the 35 minutes that he and the man had spent fixing the car together.

"That's perfectly fine, I couldn't just leave you stranded out there." The man said kindly. He spoke with an eloquence Joe warmed to immediately.

"I can't give you any money, I'm kinda between jobs at the moment." Joe mentioned disappointedly. The man shook his head and smiled.

"Don't be silly, I wouldn't have expected payment. What kind of man would I be if an act of kindness needed a monetary contribution?"

"Heh, yeah. Are you a believer in karma?" Joe asked, feeling he and the man had a connection somehow.

"Of course. One good deed deserves another. Right?" he chuckled.

"Yeah! I know that saying." Joe laughed.

"I've noticed you are quite good with an engine." The man said, rubbing his chin. His hands had grease on them, and Joe noticed his expensive looking clothes are a little dirty too.

"Yeah, I am, sir. Always been a passion of mine, working on engines. Used to buy muscle cars like Chevys and Dodges back in the 70's and tune the engines as a teenager." Joe reminisced.

"I happen to run a car repair and tuning garage." the stranger said, which made Joe's heart skip a beat. "And its not sir, it's Lucas." He smiled. Lucas had long blonde hair that made him seem akin to a proud lion, he seemed young but also very wise and intelligent, and his suit looked to have been made out of very expensive silk tailored perfectly to size. He wore a gold band on his ring finger, Joe noticed.

"Really? Business must be good!" Joe remarked, looking at the beautiful black car Lucas drove. Lucas's smile deepened.

"Nice huh? V10 twin turbo engine, its pushing seven hundred and fifty break." Lucas said, he pressed a button on his keys that he had pulled out of his pockets and the hood popped open. Joe whistled as he looked inside the engine bay, and saw a monster on an engine sitting in there, silent. He imagined the noise it would put out when driven hard… it would be glorious.

"I got one of my guys to work on it." Lucas said. "See the intake?" he pointed and Lucas nodded. "It had been lined with carbon-ceramic. That cost me a few."

Joe was awestruck by the car and he stroked the engine affectionately. "I'd have loved to work on an engine like this! Though the V8's in the Camaro's were masterpieces, still."

"How would you like a job?" Lucas said calmly, with a smile. Joe considered this, attempting not to look too dumbfounded by what Lucas had just asked him. Lucas laughed, noting this.

"That… would be amazing." Joe said. "But, I can't accept."

Lucas's smile faltered only slightly, almost unnoticeably. Joe didn't seem to notice.

"Why not?" Lucas asked. His voice was still warm and friendly.

"Well, I have a daughter, and she goes to school. I know most garages open late, my hours would only be about 5 hours each day. I thank you so much for your kindness though."

"That's fine, friend." Lucas laughed, shrugging off Joe's objection. "Work whatever hours you can, I'll pay you per car you fix instead of a salary. You've got some skill, I need a guy like you to work on some of the older cars we get in to tune or repair."

Joe mulled this over again, and his face stretched into a big smile. "I'd love to accept, Lucas. I hate to take advantage of your kindness."

"Not at all, Joe. And call me Luke, its what I like my friends and people I respect to call me. Start Monday, I've got a B-body '75 Charger waiting to be worked on."

"Of course, I'll see you then." Joe's heart raced with the big break he had just been given. "Thank you so much."

Lucas climbed into his car and fired up the engine, which sounded as glorious as Joe had imagined it would. He rolled down the window and smiled. "No Joe, thank yourself, I just see skill and I want to put it to good use, that's all."

With that, he drove off, leaving an elated and beaming Joe standing on his own in the parking lot, still processing how his life had seemingly turned a corner.

Lucas drove in his car and pressed a button on his dashboard computer screen, which prompted a phone to rise out of the centre console. He picked it up and dialled a number.

"Yes, its Lucas. Joe has taken the job. Things are going according to plan." He smiled.

**xxxxx**

"and de beaootiful chiefs dawter gave our hero a tender kiss in grateetude to hees bravery." Gru finished the next chapter. And thumped the book closed, and he smiled at the four girls who had half fallen asleep happily.

"That was a cool chapter." Edith mumbled. "I bet the sword he used was soooo sharp."

"Very sharp." Gru said as he bent down to kiss her forehead. He tugged at her hat and her fringe came out slightly, and she slapped his hand away.

"No tugging he that!" she wagged her finger at him.

"Oh quiet you!" Gru chuckled, and he pecked her on the cheek.

Agnes hugged Gru and he patted her head and kissed her forehead.

Margo smiled as Gru bent down to kiss her, and her face stiffened as she realised Holly had nowhere to sleep.

"Where will Holly stay?" she asked Gru. He paused, and glanced at her who had fallen asleep on the cushions he had thrown casually on the floor. "She can't stay there surely."

"I guess not… well she can sleep in the spare room." Gru muttered to himself.

Gru prodded the little girl, who shuffled in her sleep and she whined a little. He prodded her harder again and she sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Is it time for school daddy?" she said midway through a yawn with her eyes half closed.

Gru shook his head as she opened her eyes fully and realised where she was. "No. Yoo have to follow me to de spare room to sleep now." Gru said quietly so as not to wake Agnes up who had nodded off to sleep.

"She can have my bed if she wants, I'll sleep in the spare room." Margo offered. Gru looked at her and considered this, but he realised it was an opportunity to have her alone. "No, dat's ok, she'll be fine." Gru ushered her out of the room and smiled awkwardly at Margo.

"Goodnight you two." Gru smiled and closed the door gently behind him. He sighed and lead a carefully tiptoeing Holly to the spare room down the hall, and opened the door for her. She smiled at him as she walked past, and he showed her the bed. Kyle followed them in and made himself comfortable at the bottom of the bed.

"Goodnight Mr Gru." Holly said sweetly "Thank you very much for dinner and letting me play with Kevin."

Gru smiled dimly at her and he nodded. "Goodnight too." He said, and he closed the door quitly. Gru sighed deeply, and he walked on over to the cabinet by the girls room. He was doing his best to be quiet, as he felt Margo was suspicious with him. Gru had this terrible flaw of being unable to hide something from her, and she picked his awkwardness up easily.

He slowly slid the drawer open, and eyed the little silver pistol shaped device for a second, before picking it up. Gru made his way back to the room Holly was in and slowly opened the door and saw she was fast asleep. Gru sighed and thumbed in today's date onto a tiny keypad where his thumb came to rest. The weapon chirped at him to signal its registration of his time, and he made his way slowly to the girl.

"Dis had better work." Gru said, disappointed he had to do this. He raised it to her head, and sighed. "I am sorry."

He pulled the trigger and a bright flash akin to a camera bulb flashed the room momentarily until it died down again. Holly shuffled in her sleep and smiled, and Gru felt a pang of guilt at what he was reduced to doing.

Downstairs, Gru looked at the gun and he frowned. "Never again." He said angrily breaking the trigger mechanism and the date input keypad with a fork so that it could never work anymore.

Gru made his way back down to the lab and he placed the several broken pieces of the weapon on the table in front of Nefario.

"You didn't use it?" He asked nonchalantly.

"Yes. I did." Gru returned angrily.

"Good. We need no distractions, Gru." Nefario pointed out, which made Gru's left eye twitch with rage. He breathed calmly and soothingly to calm himself and he regained control of his shaking.

Gru thought back to the days before Nefario forced him to take back the girls to Miss Hattie's, and how Nefario had caused him so much grief then and said similar things to him then. Gru sighed, and his mind wandered to what trouble it would cause him this time.

Nefario was Gru's oldest friend, and despite his questionable attitudes to many factors in Gru's life, he meant well. He just had a funny way of showing it.

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**Apologies this chapter took so long to upload, I have started a new job and the training has been hectic, but a lot of fun. Plus I've had terrible writers block on this story.**

**I kind of don't like this chapter too much, but its necessary to continue the story. Its one of those chapters that should tie things up later on. For those of you who are starting to think a lot is going on at once, things will start to become clear soon I promise. This is my least favourite chapter, since it was so hard to write. The next chapter I have is about half done and I'm breezing through that, its a hell of a lot easier to write than this one. I am not sure if the fact of my new job and also mild writers block has affected the quality of this chapter, if it has let me know and I'll do my best to take it on board! I appreciate criticism always.**

**I hope you are enjoying the story, I am having so much fun writing it. I've started a new fanfic from Vectors perspective, as I quite liked his character. I'm doing that as it helps me escape from writers block from this story, and I can alternate between them as and when I find one story hard to write, I can write the other and focus on that. That will usually unlock my imagination and I can come back to the story I am slacking on.**

**The next chapter shouldn't take too long to finish, dear readers.**

** ^_^ ****Thank you to all the reviewers! I am glad you like the story.**


	13. Chapter 12: Revealed

Chapter 12

Revealed

The next few days went off hitch free for Gru, much to his relief. Perhaps his sleepless nights would abate and he could rest his gargantuan intellect rather than dose it with coffee for energy, that would be wonderful.

The ballet class was relatively easy, Holly sat there gawping at the girls prowess with footwork and fidgeted and cawed when Margo did a sublime echappe just for her. He managed to avoid being dragged into an arcade outing with Joe, much to the girl's disappointment. Gru promised they would definitely go one day soon. Well, mainly she gawped at Margo and Agnes, Edith lacked the poise and grace that Margo seemed to have mastery off and Agnes had her light weight on her side. Gru remarked to himself that perhaps Edith's white swampers didn't help her do ballet, either.

Monday came and went, Gru visited the school of his two older daughters and, much as he expected, gut much praise on behalf of Margo, but plenty of criticism regarding Edith. Gru listened as her teacher said (to his surprise) she was a mathematical prodigy and if she applied herself could easily become highly ranked in the state, but she never did.

He was slightly annoyed that the teacher would call into question her home life, but conceded that being recently adopted can be hard on anyone. Gru assured the teacher that he would talk to Edith, and also freeze him if he spoke out of line again. Of course, he wasn't told that.

Yes, things had begun to look up. He spent a bit more time in the lab as well, which had a huge impact on Nefario's attitude. By huge, really it meant he shrugged and said "Well I should hope so and all." when Gru said he was sorry.

Presently, Margo was in the garden watering the lawn. Gru demanded she stop as the colour green would clash horribly with his dark brown house, but she ignored him. "Margo, I told yoo not to wator my lawn." He chided her from the kitchen window.

"I'll make it look nice, I promise." She giggled and poured more water around with a grin to wind him up.

"Yoo gorls are naitmares I swear!" he laughed. Edith had trotted in and sat at the table to do some homework.

"Ah, math I see?" Gru said while scrubbing a filthy brown cup to pristine sparkly glass. Edith used to laugh at him in his pink apron and yellow cleaning gloves, but now she was used to his quirks and never noticed anymore.

"Yeah. It's about percentages today." She said dimly.

Gru pondered for a moment. Perhaps now, while Agnes was visiting a friend's house and Margo was preoccupied, he was in a prime position to offer some fatherly input. "Yor, teacher." He began tentatively. He did not receive a glare or a sigh, so he took that as a sign he could continue. "He said yoo are vury good weeth math. I was, well I am pretty good myself." He said matter-of-factly.

"Cool. This stuff is easy, so I don't need your help." Edith said, imitating his matter of factness herself. Gru frowned.

"So why do yoo not try harder een class den?"

"It's boring." Edith sighed, while she jotted down some more figures Gru could hardly read.

"Put de pen down and come weeth me. I've got sometheeng reaaly cool you might like." Edith looked up at him with an unseen eyebrow raised. Despite her hat being in the way of her eyebrows Gru had learnt by now to read the shape of the hat to tell what kind of face she was pulling. Such a good parent, he thought to himself.

"Why? I have homework."

"Just do eet. Yoo can feeneesh eet lator." Gru said, tapping his shoe on the floor. Edith shrugged and stood up and hopped off her stool with an "Oof." As she landed.

"Margo, I am takeeng Edith downstairs. Leesten for Agnes Okay?" He shouted through the window.

"Sure thing Mr Gru." Margo smiled and gave him a thumb up.

Gru smiled and then his face stiffened.

"Lets go." He said suddenly to Edith.

**xxxxx**

Edith followed her father to the lab and joined him on the journey down. She was curious, but resisted the temptation to ask. She preferred surprises more than her sisters did, and was the person who didn't pick up presents to shake them or to ask for clues as to what they might be. Agnes was _the _worst for that. She would take a million clues and ask for more if you let her get away with it.

The lift clanked as it finished its descent into the lab and the glass door opened with a hushed whisper of wind. Edith glanced up at Gru, he seemed serious and his face was as stony and emotionless as it had been the first day they were adopted.

"Follow me dees way." Gru said plainly.

They walked for what seemed like forever until Gru was standing outside a door the girls had been strictly forbidden to enter. The girls obeyed, as Gru seemed desperate and begged them to keep out. The lab was quieter than usual, Edith didn't come across a single minion despite there usually being hundreds of them milling about.

"Een here." He gestured to her, and the door opened with a hum. It sounded to Edith, with its harsh shrill grinding noises, that the door hadn't been opened for a while. The cloud of dust and stale air that engulfed them cemented thisfact.

"It's dark." Edith pointed out obviously, and she stood there staring up wondering what his game was. "I can't see anything." She coughed slightly as she breathed in a particularly large piece of dust.

"Just go een." He huffed.

Edith raised her eyebrow and nodded. "Okay..."

Gru followed her inside and the door closed, and they were now engulfed in total darkness. "Mr Gru? What's going on?" Edith asked, a flutter of apprehension crept over her, but she didn't really know why.

"Lights!" Gru bellowed.

A large clank could be heard somewhere, then another, then another, the room began to brighten with each successive clank. The noises were getting louder until they were bathed in incandescence. Edith squinted and held her hand over her eyes to shield them from the light until her eyes adjusted.

She looked up and took in what she saw. The room looked very old, and it was lined with books and boxes, smothered in dust so thick you'd think it was the oldest tomb in the oldest temple in the world.

"Books and boxes?" Edith asked.

"Yes." Gru nodded. Edith chuckled at his wistful expression, and Gru frowned. "Like a child yoo are short sighted. Deez are not _just _books and boxes. They contain something."

"What?" Edith asked with a little flutter of intrigue. Boxes with interesting things lay stretched out as far as her eyes could see, the room seemed vast but perhaps it was because she was small and couldn't see over the stacks of boxes. She wasn't quite sure which.

"My school work, and my first ever inventions." Gru smiled and looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes, letting the nostalgia wash over him like a warm rain. "This room was the first part of my lair I ever built, 30 years ago. Let me show you the control computer."

Edith smile curiously as Gru lead her through the maze of boxes and books. She grabbed Gru's hand and held it and let him lead her forward. Gru smiled as he looked down, her little hand was dwarfed by his long slender fingers. He held hers gently and led her onwards. She had never held his hand before. She would usually often run ahead of him, Margo and Agnes and Agnes would be the one to hold his hand when she wasn't holding Margo's.

The room opened up and Edith's eyes fixed on a desk with a big grey box sat on top of it. It reminded her of a computer she came across in some garbage once, while Margo was busy trying to sell cookies to a nearly deaf old lady. Gru pointed forward and said "Go take a look. It eesn't connected to de base anymore, so you can sweetch eet on."

Edith smiled gleefully and trotted over to the computer. She drew in a big lungful or air and unleashed it over the monitor and the large keyboard to get rid of the layer of dust. Gru decided while she played about with it to investigate some of the boxes and find some of his older inventions to show her.

"Man this thing is slow. Why does it take so long? The screen keeps flashing at me." Edith complained. She looked up and couldn't see her adoptive father anywhere. "Mr Gru?" she shouted, and her echoed voice returned to her several times.

Gru's voice echoed back a couple of seconds later. "Press de beeg entor button and den press 1234." She heard him shout from somewhere. Edith did so and the screen flickered into action, loading a huge and seemingly random sequence of letters and numbers and symbols, none it holding any meaning to her whatsoever. The screen began to load a symbol she _did _recognise though. It was the stylistic G Gru had the habit of adorning everything he owned with. This G was green though, not the polished silver she was used to.

"Now what?" she shouted again. A rather large crash returned answered her, followed by a girly "Ouch!" She assumed her clumsy carer had dropped something on her foot.

"Umm… just play abowt weeth eet." Gru shouted to her a few seconds later.

Edith saw a big ball attached to the keyboard and assumed it was used to move the cursor. It was filthy with dust and it stuck to her hand. After a few minutes of investigating his computer and finding some cool stuff, Gru appeared from behind some boxes with another box in his arms.

"Here, look at dees." Gru said with strain. He dropped the box to the floor and the wood split open. Some yellow stuff came out of it, Edith noting it's colour to be similar to the minions that populated Gru's lab.

Edith trotted over to him and waited for what he was going to say next. He stood by the box with a look of pride on his face.

"Now, dees was my forst eenvention." Gru said with a smile. Edith looked at it with awe and giddiness as Gru prized the wood away. A machine was inside the box. It looked similar to a microwave, it was a dull grey colour like the computer monitor box. It had several large knobs with numbers and symbols, again similar to the timer/temperature knobs you'd find on a microwave. There were a few tubes going into the rear of the machine, and a hopper on top.

"Can yoo guess what eet ess yet?" Gru asked.

"Umm… no." Edith admitted after some thought.

"I built dees to make myself a friend." Gru said.

"A friend?" Edith asked, deeply interested. Gru nodded.

"Dose meeneeons yoo see runneeing about were made by a machine like dees. I made dees all on my own before I met Nefario. Een fact," Gru explained while kneeling by the device, "eet was dees device that got him eenterested een joineeng me in de forst place."

Edith looked about the device and now realised that yellow stuff WAS the minions, or rather, was used to make them. "Does it still work?" she asked curiously. "It's cool!"

"No, eet does nawt. But, de forst meenion I made weeth eet was Phil, he is about thorty yeers old now."

Gru demonstrated how it worked by grabbing some yellow stuff and putting it into the hopper. He explained what it did, using some formulae that he knew Edith would not even have the slightest idea what they meant, and showed her the tubes and pointed bits out to her. He showed her some drawings he did in the design phase, and how the machine had changed over the years he had been perfecting it.

"I made other stuff, not just dis." Gru said while pointing out the date on the notes and drawings. "I started dis one when I was 9 years old, not much older dan yoo are naow." Edith looked up at him and her eyes shimmered with interest.

"That is soo cool. I'd love to make inventions!" She had started to talk rapidly, and Gru smiled as her mind worked overtime to think of cool ideas of her own. "I could make this gun that shoots balls of rubber that never stop bouncing! Like that movie! Or…" Edith caught her breath, but Gru interrupted.

"Der was a reason I brought yoo here to see all of dees." Gru said while holding his hand over her mouth to stop her talking. "I could not have done all dis eef I did not try and do well at school. I was always good at math, but I always had to learn more."

Edith looked down at the floor in self disappointment. Gru removed his hand from her mouth and smiled at her. "Eef you really want to be an inventor, or good at anytheeng that means you have to make compleecated theengs, you have to get good grades."

Edith nodded sheepishly. "I understand school can be tough, Edith." Gru said knowingly. "I never had an easy time at school. But you knaow, eet ees better to tell people, your teechor, your seestors, or even me." Gru patted her head and stood up and her eyes went a bit bloodshot and bleary looking.

"Ok?" he asked gently.

"Ok." Edith replied quietly.

"Good. I want yoo to get good grades dees year, seence eet ees almost de end of your year." Gru held up his hand and gestured to the computer. "I will let you have dis entire room, and everything in it, if you get an A for your math report!"

Edith stood aghast. "Really?" she asked, shocked and not really sure if he was being serious or not.

"Of couse. Gru men keep der promeeses! But! Yoo must talk to yor teechor abowt what ees bothering yoo! He will keep me eenformed, so don't let me down OK? Now, lets go get some icecream."

Gru smiled as his middle daughter smiled perhaps the warmest smile he had ever seen her wear. He felt a little flutter of pride sweep through him as Edith trotted off happily through the maze of boxes, looking into some of the open ones and wolf whistling at their awesomeness, or going "ooooh shiny" at others. Gru chuckled to himself. Maybe he was finally getting the hang of this father business.

**xxxxx**

Gru and Edith sat in the kitchen while Margo collected Agnes from her friends who lived just up the road, and Gru shoved a rather large spoonful of chocolate ice cream into his mouth.

"You are gonna get brainfreeze if you eat hat quick!" Edith said with a huff, almost like a mother. Gru laughed at her and she stared at him angrily.

"I am a genius, my brain is far too beeg to freeze." Gru chuckled.

"Hmph..."

"Uh oh, back to yoor stroppy self huh?" Gru sneered playfully while trying to swat her with his cold chocolate covered spoon.

"Am not. Quit it." she giggled.

Gru heard the door close and a rapid patter of feet right after. "Dat must be your seestors." Gru remarked.

The door swung upon and sure enough, there was Agnes. Her hair was in pigtails rather than it's usual topknot. She looked giddy.

"Heeey daaddy!" she screeched and ran to Gru.

"Ah my leetel keetten!" Gru smiled as she ran to him. Margo followed her in after and saw Agnes leap onto Gru's lap and begin her long and rapid stories about what she got up to. She smiled and perched herself on the seat next to Edith.

"Ice cream?" Margo said after she grabbed the carton. "May as well have some too." she laughed.

"Oh really?" Gru said.

"Yeah, I saw this BIG spider on her ceiling and it was gonna eat me, so we slept downstairs." Agnes explained with a dramatic voice.

"Well you should have squished it." Edith said snidely.

"Nuh uh, it'll hatch lots of baby spiders and then they will get revenge." Agnes argued.

Gru stood up and plonked Agnes on the chair he was sitting on and grabbed another spoon and bowl for Margo and Agnes.

"Yoo three are lucky I don't make yoo wait teell dinnor." He wagged his finger at them.

Margo rolled her eyes and took the bowl and spoon off of him, and shovelled some of the ice cream into it.

"Oh Edith, I have a present for yoo." Gru said suddenly. Edith looked up, eyes twinkling.

"Is it a machine gun?" she asked excitedly. Gru and Margo both eyed her dismally and said "No it isn't." at the same time.

He trotted out of the room and the girls exchanged glances. Gru returned seconds later with a pink box.

"Open it!" he said happily. "Go on."

Edith ripped the box open and removed two brand new ballet shoes. Edith was silent for a few seconds, Margo was impressed and Agnes was awed by their shimmering white glow.

"Like them?" Gru asked expectantly.

"No." Edith said. Gru gawped, as did Margo and Agnes.

"Wha-" Gru stuttered, and Edith broke out into a huge grin.

"I love them!" she squeaked. "They are awesome." she said, noting a little pink thunderbolt and an E styled similarly to Gru's G sewn into the front.

"Now you can actually be good at ballet." Gru remarked sarcastically. Edith poked her tongue out at him.

Gru sat down next to his daughters, and they ate ice cream together.

**xxxxx**

Gru closed the book of the girls latest story and kissed Agnes goodnight. She had already fallen asleep. Margo removed her glasses and gave them a quick clean before Gru kissed her next.

" 'Night Mr Gru." She said warmly.

"Goodnight keetten."

"Hey, Mr Gru?" Edith said as he bent down to kiss her last. "Can I start tomorrow?"

"No, go to sleep." He said cheerfully. He kissed her forehead and turned off her lamp. Edith snuggled herself up and smacked her lips and gave a contended sigh.

"Mr Gru?" Edith asked just before he had the chance to close the door.

Gru sighed and slumped. "What?"

"When _can _I start?"

"Not yet, like I said get good grades." He sighed deeply.

"Ok." He heard her reply quietly. He pulled the door nearly shut again.

"Mr Gru?" Edith asked again.

"Oh… for cryeeng owt – what now?" he snapped irritably, but not loudly lest he wake up Agnes and Margo.

"Thanks."

Gru smiled to himself. "You are welcome."

Gru closed the door gently and shuffled to the stairs. He cracked his back, it had been a long day and he needed to call Joe to sort out a babysitter for the girls. The heist was drawing closer now, every day Gru grew more excited and nervous in equal measure. He hoped his time as a father had not dulled his abilities as an evil mastermind. Only time would tell.

Gru walked into the kitchen to fix himself a cup of water to take to bed, when the doorbell rang. Gru glanced at the clock. 8:45. "Now who coold be knocking at dees time?"

Gru walked to the door and eyed the keyhole. There was no one in sight, just the quiet street outside. It was dusk outside, and the street itself was empty. He pressed a button by the defence consol and the peep-hole protruded from the hole in the door. A little handle erected itself from an unseen cavity in the door and Gru used it to manoeuvre the lens about, to get a better view of the street. He moved it to the left, and saw nothing.

Another knock. Gru jumped back and yelped in fright. He moved the peep hole sight around frantically to see who was at the door, but saw no one. His heart was beating rapidly and his breathing was heavy. How could he not see anyone?

Gru had a disturbing though creep into his head. He realised the defences were active upon noticing a flashing red warning light out of the corner of his eye. This did not help matters, it would be impossible for someone to even _be _at the door right now, but there was a knock.

Suddenly, a voice spoke to him. "Mr Gru? Could you open the door please?"

Gru froze in place, not moving. His heart was beating fiercely in his chest. He began to feel hugely apprehensive as several scenarios were running through his head trying to explain what was happening. A ghost? No, that would be stupid. Though not out of the question… he had "met" one many years ago on an particularly frightful heist.

Another reason could be… spies. Now that would be a problem. That would explain how he could not see them, and how they avoided his defences. Gru did not risk answering the unseen person.

"Mr Gru, I know you are at the door. I am a man who is interested in talking to you."

The voice was gravelly but at the same time smooth, Gru found that hard to comprehend. Maybe he was just hearing things. As a villain he would usually open the door with a large gun blazing vengeful fire in situations like this, but he couldn't now. He was a father, and doing things like that were out of the question. That was also why he was too worried to open the door, he could neither see the person on the other side of the door now establish any motives. The voice was not one he recognised.

He had to make a decision. The voice spoke again. "Please, Mr Gru." It wasn't forceful or demanding, it seemed almost like a friendly request, the sort of request a partner would make it if would not trouble you too much.

Gru sighed, bit his bottom lip, and opened the door.

He was greeted with a man of about the same height as him, maybe a little taller. He was slender but lithe, and he was impeccably dressed in a classy dark blue matte suit and black shirt sans tie. He had a slight smattering of stubble on his strong blocky jaw, and his dark hair was slicked back. His blue eyes burned with… Gru didn't really know what. But they burned…

The man smiled warmly, as if greeting an old friend. "Ah Mr Gru, we meet at last."

Gru eyed his "guest" carefully and suspiciously. He was quiet, still trying to process the situation. The man stood there calmly. Gru's heart skipped a beat when he laid eyes on a car parked outside his driveway. He didn't see it in the view hole, much like this man. That was difficult to explain. But that wasn't on his mind, what was on his mind was the colour of the car. It was getting dark out, but the last vestiges of refracted sunlight in the sky shimmered in its black surface.

The aggressive hood and blacked out windows were no new sight to Gru. This car was not new to him, it had been following him around for weeks. It was_ the _black car, the one that had given him a lot of trouble recently.

Gru, trying his best to hide his sudden disquiet, looked back at the man.

He smiled again, a glint of smugness radiated out of it. He seemed to understand why Gru suddenly looked so pale.

"Can I help you?" Gru managed to ask after a moment.

"Yes, of course. How rude of me." He said politely. "I'm here because me and my organisation are in need of your services. We have a proposition for you."

Gru was about to say no when a couple of other man stepped out of the car and made their way to the front door.

"Dis is not exactly how I woold greet a potential client." Gru remarked, calming down a little and feeling safe. His mind was always on the girls upstairs asleep. Gru thumbed a button on the security control console next to the door. In a few seconds, two minions would be sent to the girls via the access tubes he installed in their room, and they would be woken up and taken into the lab by the same way. Gru could feel safer with them down there, come what may.

"I do apologise," the man said with an honest sounding tone, "as we have never met someone so cautious as you."

Gru didn't reply. He didn't trust them at all, and doubted his honesty.

"May I come in? My associates are here to assist me with what I have in mind."

"Which is?" Gru asked, his mind now thinking about how they were able to hide out of view from his peep hole. Technology like that was unheard of, the power of invisibility…

"Well. My proposition is a partnership. We have need of your services and you are the only man who can do what we require. Obviously, there is a large monetary incentive upon completion." He said coolly.

Gru looked around the street and saw a neighbour going to his car, and sighed.

"Yes, come een. Out of sight ees best." He gestured the men inside.

The men in the black suits and tie followed after their superior, and Gru eyed them with disdain. This was _not _how he would ever approach anyone. They seemed professional, but there was something about their conduct that irked him considerably.

"I have some questions for yoo as well." Gru said coldly as he closed the door behind him. The men had already made their way into his living room before he had shown them in. Another poor choice, Gru thought. Their manner made him seethe with rage. He followed them into the living room and sat down in his large rhinoceros chair as the man in the casual suit sat down on his sofa.

"Now, Mr Gru." The man said, clasping his hands together and leaning forward. "What do you know of the Salzor-Niemern Machine?"

**.**

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**Wow… I haven't updated this for a long time. Apologies for that! I had immense writers block as far as this story goes, I reached a point where I found it impossible to think of how to continue the story. Ugh… my head hurts now. However I seem to have had my second wind now so hopefully I can get back in gear and get on with this, as I am looking forward to writing more.**

**Thank you all for the kind reviews, and to the anonymous readers: I hope you are enjoying it too!**


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